Ryan Hamilton, of Hempstead, sentenced to 19 years to life for 2021 killing
A Hempstead man was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison Monday for the 2021 killing of a man in the backyard of a home in Hempstead.
Ryan Hamilton, 24, pleaded guilty Feb. 15 to the second-degree murder of Trendabi Reid, 25, of Hempstead, Nassau County District Attorney officials said. He also pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon.
Prosecutors said Hamilton went to a home May 7, 2021, on James L L Burrell Avenue in Hempstead where he was talking with friends and cleaning a gun. Reid went to the home and began arguing with another man over a debt, before they started pushing and shoving each other.
Hamilton then approached the fight and unprovoked, fired a single round, shooting Reid in the face with a 9 mm pistol. He died at the scene and Hamilton ran from the home, prosecutors said.
Police found the gun in a vacant lot about two blocks away. Nassau homicide detectives arrested Hamilton more than a month later in Waterbury, Connecticut. He later confessed to police.
“When an argument broke out in the backyard of a Hempstead home, Ryan Hamilton chose to end it with violence,” District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement.
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
