Man sentenced to 20 years in deadly 2017 Christmas Day shooting

A judge Friday sentenced a Hempstead man to 20 years in prison for firing the bullet that killed a father on Christmas in 2017 as he walked to the village’s train station to meet his daughter.

Antoine Foster, 19, pleaded guilty last year to manslaughter in the deadly shooting of Rafael Cepeda.

The 35-year-old father had just wrapped his 11-year-old’s holiday gifts and was going to pick her up when gunfire hit him as he crossed Terrace Avenue around 6:20 p.m., according to police.

Foster opened fire on a vehicle he thought had rival gang members in it, but a bullet hit Cepeda in the chest as he walked in front of the vehicle, authorities said.

Prosecutor Martin Meaney said Friday in Nassau County Court that the shooting grew out of a conflict between street gangs, with Foster, a Bloods member, firing at Crips.

“It’s just a tragedy,” Meaney said of Cepeda's slaying.

He added that the shooting had “ripped apart” Cepeda’s family and even the defendant’s own family — some of whom cried during Friday’s sentencing.

Before acting state Supreme Court Justice William O’Brien announced the sentence, Foster’s attorney, Christopher Devane, said the Christmas evening violence followed a shooting on the same street a week earlier.

“I know he is sorry for his actions,” Devane said of his client.

The gang violence, the defense lawyer added, “not only took Mr. Cepeda’s life” but would take “a great portion of Mr. Foster’s life” as he headed to prison for up to two decades.

Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas called the victim “an innocent man” in a statement Friday and said she hoped the sentence gave some closure to his family.

“Senseless acts of gun violence like this have devastating consequences for our communities and cannot be tolerated,” the district attorney said.

Last month a judge sentenced Shameq Sullins, 19, of Hempstead, to 7 years in prison for his role in the crime.

Police said Sullins, then 16, acted as a lookout for Foster, then 17, during the shooting. Sullins, whom police identified as a Bloods member but who has denied gang involvement, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

A grand jury indicted both defendants on murder charges following Foster’s arrest in June 2018 in Virginia after authorities said he had been on the run for six months.

Police arrested Sullins about a week after the shooting but didn’t recover the semiautomatic handgun used in the killing.

Cepeda’s family wasn’t in court Friday and a relative declined to comment when reached by phone.

A family friend previously said the victim’s daughter was living with an aunt.