Press Release
CO-DEFENDANTS PLEAD GUILTY IN SHOOTING DEATHS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Richard Davenport and Neville Brown each pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter for the shooting deaths of two men in South Richmond Hill in late 2017 and early 2018. The judge in the case said he would sentence Davenport to 29 years in prison and Brown to 15 years.
District Attorney Katz said: “The scourge of gun violence that has brought heartache and grief to our communities will never be tolerated. My office will continue our unrelenting efforts to bring justice for the victims, no matter how much time has passed. In pleading guilty, both defendants have accepted responsibility for taking the lives of two young men and are being held to account with lengthy prison terms.”
Davenport, 46, of 139th Street in Jamaica, Queens, and Brown, 42, of 197th Street in Hollis, Queens, each pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of first degree manslaughter before Queens Supreme Court Judge Michael B. Aloise, who indicated he would sentence Davenport to 29 years and Brown to 15 years in prison. Sentencing for Brown is scheduled for December 13; sentencing for Davenport is set for January 12, 2023.
According to the charges, at approximately 3:00 am on December 19, 2017, Brown was the driver and Davenport the lone passenger in a Mercedes Benz that drove several times past a Cadillac Escalade parked on 125th Street and Atlantic Avenue in South Richmond Hill, Queens. Security camera video footage shows the defendants parking the Mercedes and Davenport and Brown exiting and approaching the Cadillac from opposite sides. Davenport is then seen firing several times into the vehicle, striking Dail Ramessar, 21. The defendants fled the scene in the Mercedes. Ramessar was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Additionally, according to the charges, at roughly 9:30 pm on January 16, 2018, security video footage shows the same Mercedes Benz stopped on 105th Street near 135th Avenue in South Richmond Hill. Davenport is seen exiting the vehicle and approaching Omaree Morrison, 19, as he walked along 135th Avenue. Davenport fired several times, striking and killing Morrison.
Ballistics tests showed that the shell casings recovered from the January 2018 shooting matched those found at the December 2017 crime scene.
The investigation was conducted by detectives from the New York City Police Department’s 106th and 102nd Precincts, as well as the Queens South Homicide Squad.
Assistant District Attorney Christine McCoy, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s Felony Trials Bureau III, prosecuted the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Bryan Kotowski, under the supervision of Rachel Buchter, Felony Trials Bureau III Chief, as well as Assistant District Attorneys Peter J. McCormack III and John W. Kosinski, Homicide Senior Deputy Bureau Chiefs, under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Supreme Court Trial Division Pishoy B. Yacoub and Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Major Crimes Division Daniel A. Saunders.