Man sentenced for killing neighbor in 2009
A Central Islip man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday for killing a neighbor in a dispute over money and a television.
Suffolk County Court Judge Stephen Braslow also imposed a $25,000 fine on Deighton Reed, 22.
Reed was convicted last month of second-degree murder in the December 2009 death of Valentino Sanchez, 21, of Brentwood, who lived close by.
Prosecutors said Reed went to Sanchez's home with a Mossberg Tactical Turkey pump-action shotgun. During an argument in Sanchez's upstairs bedroom over a small amount of money, Reed fired several shots, killing Sanchez and blowing a hole in the wall.
Reed took off to North Carolina, where he was arrested in January 2010 after a traffic stop. Suffolk detectives interviewed him there and he signed a confession, they testified.
After the killing, Reed told detectives that, nearby, he had burned the clothing he was wearing at the time of the crime and police found a pile of ashes at that location.
Police never found the gun, but they did find evidence that he purchased it at the Bohemia gun shop where he said he bought it.
'The thing that really struck me was the duality of it' Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney sat down with Newsday's Doug Geed following Rex A. Heuermann's guilty plea in court.
'The thing that really struck me was the duality of it' Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney sat down with Newsday's Doug Geed following Rex A. Heuermann's guilty plea in court.
