PRESS RELEASE
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: NOVEMBER 1, 2018
The Appellate Division, Third Department has unanimously affirmed the August 13, 2015 conviction of David Reese upon a jury verdict convicting him of the crime of murder in the second degree.
Defendant’s conviction stems from an incident which occurred on the morning of February 3, 2014 at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection maintenance shop in Kingston. Twenty minutes after arriving at work with a loaded pistol, defendant confronted Aaron Thomas, a co-worker, at gunpoint and after hitting him in the head with the gun, fatally shot the 33 year old victim, a husband and father with two young children. Immediately following the murder, defendant turned his pistol over to a DEP police officer and calmly announced he had shot a coworker. At trial, defendant raised an extreme emotional disturbance defense, as well as a not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect defense. The jury, however, rejected both of those defenses and convicted him of murder in the second degree.
The defendant was subsequently sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to the maximum State prison term of 25 years to life.
On appeal, defendant claimed that the jury’s verdict was not supported by legally sufficient evidence and was against the weight of the credible evidence. Defendant also challenged the sentence imposed by County Court, arguing it was unduly harsh and excessive and argued that the Court committed reversible error by failing to provide a justification charge, despite the fact that no request was ever made for such charge. The Third Department, however, rejected all of defendant’s arguments.
On appeal, the defendant is represented by Arthur G. Dunn, Esq. of Troy, New York. Hannah E.C. Moore of the New York Prosecutor’s Training Institute handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.