Prosecutors: Gang member pleads guilty in mistaken-identity murder in Riverside

An associate of the Bloods street gang out of Riverhead pleaded guilty Friday to a 2015 killing in which 39 bullets intended for a rival gang member were sprayed into a car and struck the wrong man, the U.S. attorney’s office announced.

The plea of Jason Langhorn — "a member of the ‘Lowrider Brims’ subset of the Bloods and an associate of the ‘Red Stone Gorilla’ subset of the Bloods" — to firearm-related murder was in Central Islip at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, according to a news release from the office.

The slain man, Thomas Lacolla, had been in the car in Riversideon Nov. 17, 2015, when Langhorn, 39, of Riverhead, who is also known as "Hov," and two other gang members "sprayed 39 shots from three firearms, including an assault rifle, into a vehicle they believed was occupied by the rival gang member, but instead was occupied by Lacolla, who was killed in the fusillade," according to the release, which did not go into more specifics about Langhorn's exact role.

The intended target was Trendell Walker, Newsday reported last year. Lacolla was a friend of Walker, who is now awaiting sentencing in an unrelated 2007 fatal shooting of 15-year-old boy.

Langhorn’s defense attorney listed in court records, John Carman of Garden City, did not return a voice message left seeking comment.

The release does not say how much prison time Langhorn is facing, but in October, the man who drove Langhorn and the others, Terrill Latney, 40, was sentenced to 20 years.

The case was prosecuted federally under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods program, which dates to 2001 and devotes federal resources to address local crime.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.