Most criminal charges filed by Westchester DA Mimi Rocah, or any DA, are settled by plea bargain and do not go to trial. For the 5% of cases that do go to trial, it is notable to review their outcomes.
On Oct. 14, District Attorney Rocah announced that after a five-week trial, a jury found White Plains resident Brandon Williams, 28, guilty of the 2020 murder of Deron Strange.
Williams was found guilty on October 14, 2022, of Murder in the Second Degree and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, all felonies. The defendant faces a sentence ranging from a minimum of 15 years to life in state prison to a maximum of 25 years to life in state prison when he is sentenced on December 5, 2022.
On May 27, 2020, at approximately 11:52 p.m., the defendant approached the 35-year-old victim in the parking lot of the victim’s residence on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in White Plains and used a semi-automatic handgun to shoot the victim. The defendant then chased the victim around the parking lot and continued to shoot him a total of five times, striking him twice in the abdomen and pelvis.
The victim was transported to the White Plains Hospital, where he died.
The White Plains Police Department arrested the defendant at a hotel in Harrison on May 29, 2020, following an investigation, with assistance from the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force.
The case is before Judge George Fufidio in Westchester County Court, and is being prosecuted by Bureau Chief Laura Murphy and Assistant District Attorney Marissa Morra-Wynn, both of the Trials and Investigations Division.
