Port Jeff Station man sentenced for killing outside pizzeria

A Port Jefferson Station man was sentenced Monday by a Suffolk County judge to 40 years in prison after he fatally shot a Shirley resident last year in broad daylight as the victim was picking up pizza, Suffolk prosecutors said.

Joseph Garcia, 20 was found guilty on April 7 of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree criminal complaint after a jury trial for the murder of David Bliss, 25.

Judge Timothy P. Mazzei sentenced Garcia.

“This senseless act of violence was caused by a verbal dispute, which the defendant later joked about as if the life of the victim had no value,” said Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney in a news release. “Certainly, this sentence is no laughing matter and now the defendant has decades to think about what he has done while he faces responsibility for his actions.”

Garcia’s attorney George Duncan, of Islip Terrace, said his client “maintains his innocence and he’s appealing his conviction.”

On March 24, 2021, Suffolk prosecutors said Garcia shot Bliss with a pistol once in the abdomen at the Port Jefferson pizzeria on Main Street, near West Broadway in the village. Garcia, authorities said, didn’t know Bliss but had a verbal dispute with him. Bliss was taken to St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The shooting was captured on camera, showing Garcia shooting at Bliss and trying to pull the trigger at least two more times, but the gun was jammed, prosecutors said during the trial.

Garcia and his associates fled in a vehicle after the shooting and went to a home in Setauket, which had cameras equipped inside and outside the residence, prosecutors said. Video from inside the home showed Garcia, who was laughing and joking about the shooting, with the weapon used, authorities said.

He was arrested on March 27, 2021, authorities said.

Port Jefferson Mayor Margot Garant said the shooting was “surprising to us all.”

“I think the sentencing today sends a very strong message that level of violence in midday especially, won’t be tolerated,” she said. “I think the sentencing is appropriate.”