Jabree West, above, was killed by Eric Williams below
Defendant shot the sleeping victim in the back of the head in front of a Yonkers residential building in 2021
On Aug. 14m Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced that a New Castle, Delaware man was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for the 2021 murder of 22-year-old Jabree West, of Wilmington, Delaware.
DA Rocah said: “Due to the tireless efforts of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners, justice has been served for this ruthless and cold-blooded murder.”
After a four-week trial in June, a jury found Eric Williams, 24, guilty of Murder in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, both felonies.
On June 20, 2021, at approximately 4:30 a.m., the defendant, who had a personal conflict with the victim, used a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to shoot the victim once in the back of the head while he was sleeping on the stoop of a residential building on Bronx River Road in Yonkers. The victim was taken to New York-Presbyterian Westchester hospital in Bronxville where he died.
During the investigation, the Yonkers Police Department recovered surveillance video of the defendant walking back and forth in front of the building next to where the victim was sleeping, appearing to rack the slide of his gun. The defendant then walked off camera and a gunshot was heard approximately one minute later. The defendant was observed quickly walking away from the crime scene. Additional surveillance footage captured the defendant walking around Yonkers for hours before getting picked up and driven back to Delaware.
Police also recovered the victim’s cell phone, which contained multiple videos and photographs of the defendant and victim together during their trip to New York from Delaware.
Utilizing digital forensics, police located and arrested the defendant as he was leaving his father’s home in Staten Island on Dec. 19, 2021. At the time of his arrest, the defendant made numerous admissions. The murder weapon was never recovered.
The District Attorney thanked the Yonkers Police Department, the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, the New York City Police Department, the DA’s Office High Technology Crimes Unit and the New Castle County Police Department in Delaware for their assistance with the investigation.
The case was before Judge Robert Neary in Westchester County Court, and prosecuted by Major Case Bureau Chief Nadine Nagler and Senior Assistant District Attorney Adrian Murphy, both of the Trials and Investigations Division.
