Calif. man gets 25 to life in fatal Valley Stream shooting

A California man was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison — the maximum punishment — for fatally shooting his estranged wife’s boyfriend in her Valley Stream home in a fit of jealous rage two years ago.

An attorney for Deon Ewers, 51, said his client shot Majid Morris, 34, five times on Nov. 6, 2015, but said it was in self-defense. But a jury didn’t believe Ewers’ defense, and on March 28 convicted him of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

The sentence, handed down by acting state Supreme Court Judge Meryl Berkowitz, is what Morris’ family sought — but they said it doesn’t ease their pain.

“He didn’t deserve to suffer alone, in some narrow, Godforsaken dark attic room and bleed on a mattress on a floor somewhere far away from those who loved and cared about him,” Morris’ widow, who asked not to be named, said Tuesday in Nassau County Court in Mineola.

The Morrises — who a prosecutor said were themselves estranged at the time of the shooting — have a 9-year-old daughter.

On Nov. 6, 2015, Ewers, of Rancho Cucamonga, flew to New York to surprise his estranged wife and their teenage son, who were living in Valley Stream, according to the Nassau district attorney’s office. At about 6:50 a.m., about an hour after Ewers landed in New York, he went to her East Hawthorne Avenue house, and found Morris in an upstairs bedroom.

Ewers shot Morris with a semi-automatic weapon, which Ewers’ attorney, James Koenig of Manhattan, said belonged to Morris. Ewers’ teenage son, who was inside the house when the shooting happened, called 911. One of the gunshots can be heard on the 911 call, according to the district attorney’s office. The teen and his mother, who also was in the house, were not hurt.

Ewers fled and was arrested in Oceanside on Nov. 7, 2015, according to the district attorney’s office.

Assistant District Attorney Daryl Levy had urged the judge to sentence Ewers to the maximum punishment allowed under the law, saying Ewers intended to kill Morris because he shot him five times, with a long pause between the fourth shot and the final shot.

“This was an execution,” Levy told the judge. “This was not self-defense.”

Levy also asked the judge to take into consideration Ewers’ behavior after the shooting, when Ewers ditched the gun and went to a laundromat to wash his clothes in an attempt to hide his crime.

Koenig asked Berkowitz for leniency, saying his client did not have a criminal past, and characterized the shooting as a “crime of passion.”

The judge wasn’t swayed by Koenig’s plea. She also sentenced Ewers to 15 years for the gun charge, which will run concurrent with the murder sentence.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, Morris’ sister, Jordana Snape, also described the impact his death has not her and her family.

“The hurt and the pain I feel is unexplainable,” she said. “My brother was my best friend.”

Ewers, whose attorney said plans to appeal his conviction, did not address the court.