Bay Shore man gets 25-to-life in death of rival dealer

Minutes before a Bay Shore man was given the maximum sentence Tuesday for fatally shooting another man two years ago, the victim's teenage daughter spoke tearfully about her father's death.

Arneshia Joell, 18, said her father, Paul Joell, 40, of Bay Shore, had befriended the defendant, Maurice Wallace, and welcomed Wallace into his home before a dispute between the two men ended with Wallace killing Paul Joell on Sept. 5, 2008, in front of Joell's children.

Wallace, 26, of Bay Shore, was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison for the death of Joell, a longtime employee of Newsday's collating department. Prosecutors said Wallace and Joell were rival drug dealers and Wallace believed Joell was stealing customers.

"I'm not going to say my father was perfect, because nobody is, but nobody should die like that in front of his kids," Arneshia Joell said at Wallace's sentencing in Suffolk County Court in Riverside. "My dad called you a friend," she said to Wallace, "and in turn you took his life."

A jury last month convicted Wallace of second-degree murder. He also was found guilty of menacing for threatening a witness.

Wallace's attorney, Craig McElwee of North Babylon, had argued that someone else killed Joell. He said he plans to appeal.

After shooting Joell, Wallace fled to Georgia and was arrested several weeks later at the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan, prosecutors said.

"You're a violent, dangerous criminal," County Court Judge Gary Weber said to Wallace. "The longer you stay in prison, the better off everybody is."

Outside court, Arneshia Joell said she was 16 when she witnessed her father's murder. She recalled him as a good man who took her to New York City every Friday and insisted she study hard in school.

Paul Joell had two other children, she said. "He was very into being book smart and street smart. He took care of all of us."

She said she felt "relieved" by Wallace's conviction and sentence.

"I feel, in a way, liberated," Arneshia Joell said, "because a lot of people get killed and nobody knows about it."