State of New York v. Devante James

Brooklyn, New York, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with manslaughter and second-degree attempted murder.



On August 18, 2019, at approximately 2:14 a.m., the defendant, a member of the Mac Balla 59 Brims/Bloods crept up to a group of people hanging out near Tapscott Street and Sutter Avenue in Brownsville, and fired into the crowd, hoping to strike a rival Crip gang member, but instead struck two innocent men. One man suffered an injury to his right ankle and the other victim suffered an injury to his right thigh.



Two days later, on August 20, 2019, at approximately 9:20 p.m., near Union Street and Sutter Avenue in Brownsville, the defendant chased 28-year-old Arsenio Gravesande and shot him in the hip. Gravesande was transported to Brookdale Hospital, where he went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead.



On September 11, 2019, during an unrelated police investigation near Church Avenue and E. 37th Street in East Flatbush, officers saw the defendant discard what they later learned was a loaded firearm. It was recovered and later matched to him through DNA testing.



In a separate incident, on March 28, 2020, outside a bodega at Franklin Avenue and Lexington Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the defendant argued with a patron, who hit him in the head with a bottle. James retaliated by shooting the man in the stomach. On April 3, 2020, the defendant displayed a handgun to an employee at a bodega near Bedford Avenue and Greene Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The employee flagged down police, who apprehended the defendant and recovered a loaded handgun from an open mailbox in a nearby building. Ballistic testing confirmed it was the same weapon used in the March 28 shooting.



The District Attorney thanked Senior Assistant District Attorney Michelle Munneke and Paralegal Heidi Spitzer of the District Attorney's Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau and Senior Assistant District Attorney Julian Joiris and Assistant District Attorney Sholom Twersky, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Appeals Bureau for their assistance on the case.



The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Sapna Kishnani, of the District Attorney's Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Gillian DiPietro, VCE Deputy Bureau Chief, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Cilia, VCE First Deputy Bureau Chief, and Assistant District Attorney Alfred De Ingeniis, VCE Bureau Chief.

The defendant pleaded guilty to multiple acts of gun violence, including the fatal shooting of a 28-year-old man in Brownsville.



The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.