Two New York City men have been sentenced to at least 40 years in prison for opening fire outside a party venue on Long Island, killing one victim and wounding three others, in what officials described as a “calculated murder” that “shattered the Valley Stream community.”
Kyle Matthews and Isaiah Gonzalez, both 23, were convicted last month of murder, conspiracy and weapon offenses in the deadly shooting of 20-year-old Deandre Carter on the evening of Aug. 21, 2023.
The two Far Rockaway, Queens, residents went to a venue on Ocean Avenue in Valley Stream, where a group of individuals associated with the Crips street gang was having a party.
According to investigators, the two men walked toward a group of partygoers standing outside the entrance and fired at least eight shots from two different .380-caliber pistols, in what Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly described as a meticulous plot “to murder a member of a rival group in their community.”
Carter, of Brooklyn, was shot in the chest; the bullet shattered his rib cage and pierced his heart and left lung.
Three other individuals — including a 12-year-old victim — were also shot and had to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to prosecutors.
NYPD officers arrested Matthews in Far Rockaway on Sept. 6, 2023, while Gonzalez was arrested two days later in Manhattan.
In April, after a nearly four-week trial — and one day of deliberation — a Nassau County jury found both men guilty.
On Monday, Judge Helene Gugerty sentenced them to up to 40 years to life in prison, Newsday reported.
The duo’s “calculated murder” of Carter “took a beloved son, nephew, and friend from his family, and shattered the Valley Stream community,” according to the district attorney.
The victim “had dreams of pursuing a career in criminal justice and becoming a police officer,” Donnelly said in a statement. “Dreams that were stolen from him that August night.”
