Jurors hear closing arguments in murder-robbery case against Roosevelt teen

The evidence against a Roosevelt teenager accused in two deadly shootings along with two gunpoint cabbie robberies includes a confession that helps prove his guilt, a Nassau prosecutor told jurors Thursday.

But a defense attorney for Corey Williams, 19, tried to cast doubt on some of his client’s alleged statements to authorities by questioning why police didn’t record everything they said the teenager told them.

Williams is standing trial in Nassau County Court after his indictment on two second-degree murder counts, along with charges that include attempted murder and several robbery and weapon offenses.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations Friday after a trial that lasted about a month and featured around 40 witnesses.

Authorities said a second suspect in the killings, Malique Shelton, 18, also of Roosevelt, previously pleaded guilty to murder and is awaiting sentencing.

Law enforcement officials had accused Shelton and Williams of committing the homicides together in their hometown, one in 2015 and another in 2016.

In the first slaying, authorities said two males on bicycles stalked victim Gerber Hernandez, 33, on a dark street on Nov. 18, 2015, so they could rob him.

But prosecutors said the victim, who was walking home from work and had just stopped at a store to buy dinner, resisted the robbery and was fatally shot.

In the second slaying, authorities say the suspects led victim Royston Hall, 37, to Wagner Avenue in Roosevelt and killed the marijuana dealer during a gunpoint robbery.

Prosecutor Ania Pulaski urged jurors Thursday in her closing argument not to create “what-ifs” in their minds and instead to “evaluate the evidence” they had heard.

“There’s no question if you look at it all together that this defendant is the one who did it,” she said of Williams.

But defense attorney Jeffrey Groder reminded the panel that during jury selection each of them had “made a promise to the idea that Mr. Williams is presumed to be innocent,” and said that concept “has not changed.”

The Mineola lawyer added that the prosecution lacked enough evidence to prove its case.

“An evaluation of the evidence without emotion, and an evaluation of the evidence according to the law . . . will lead you to the inescapable conclusion that Mr. Williams is not guilty,” Groder said.

The defense attorney also questioned why a detective didn't use a personal recording device or take notes when Williams allegedly told him in the kitchen of a robbery squad office — before the usual video setup was running — that he’d been present during both killings.

But Pulaski countered that it made sense that a detective “didn’t take out a recording device and put it in the defendant’s face” when Williams started talking, or begin note-taking, because the detective would want Williams to be comfortable and “to open up.”

Williams is also on trial in connection with the July 8, 2016, gunpoint robbery of one cabdriver, and the July 18, 2016, robbery and shooting of another.