Stansberry Sr. guilty of murder
Jury returns verdict after less than 5 hours of deliberation; defendant faces maximum prison term of 25 years to life
Maurice Stansberry Sr. was convicted of murder, robbery and weapons charges Friday in the Dec. 1, 2018, shooting death of Mark Lancaster on Sawkill Road in the town of Ulster.
An Ulster County Court jury deliberated for less than five hours before finding Stansberry, 39, guilty of second-degree murder, four counts of robbery, one count of criminal possession of a weapon, and one count of crimi
nal use of a firearm, all felonies.
The verdict came just minutes after Judge Donald A. Williams provided the jury with the legal definitions of “robbery” and “forcible” that the panel requested.
Stansberry is to be sentenced Oct. 4. The maximum prison term for second-degree murder is 25 years to life.
The verdict was met with some quiet gasps and tears in the courtroom from relatives and friends of both Lancaster and Stansberry.
“I respect the decision of the jury, and yes, I will definitely file an appeal,” Stansberry’s lawyer, Ulster County Assistant Public Defender Russell Schindler, said after the verdict was announced.
The prosecutor, Ulster County Senior Assistant District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji, said he was “definitely pleased” with the verdict and that the jury “made a fair and impartial decision.”
Stansberry’s trial had three days of testimony.
Stansberry, his son, Maurice Stansberry Jr., 18, and Kevin Gardener, also 18, all were charged with seconddegree murder in the killing, which followed what authorities have described as a drug deal at the Sawkill Trailer Park that turned into an armed robbery of marijuana.
Gardener pleaded guilty last week and faces a sentence of up to 20 years to life in state prison. Stansberry Jr. has not been tried yet. He testified against his father this week, and Gardener’s lawyer speculated recently that the younger Stansberry cut a deal with prosecutors in exchange for that testimony. The Ulster County District Attorney’s Office has declined to comment on that. On Friday, Nneji said only that the case against Stansberry Jr. is pending.
The younger Stansberry testified at his father’s trial on Tuesday and Wednesday. Part of his testimony was about the 9mm handgun he said his father brought to the drug deal.
“His own son told you he brought the weapon, the loaded weapon that belonged to him,” Nneji said during his summation Thursday. The prosecutor said Stansberry Sr. used that gun to take the marijuana by force and prevent Lancaster from getting it back.
With Stansberry Jr. at the wheel, authorities have said, the three defendants drove away from the trailer park, and Lancaster, 39, his son Jahsi Quiles, 18, and Quiles’ friend, Sebastian Lynch, also 18, gave chase in Lancaster’s vehicle.
Lancaster caught up to the defendants’ car on Sawkill Road and forced it to stop. He then, according to testimony at this week’s trial, opened the driver’s side door of the defendants’ car and grabbed Stansberry Jr.’s shirt, demanding the return of the marijuana. It was then that Lancaster was fatally shot, witnesses said.
It remains unclear who fired the shot. Gardener, in pleading guilty, said he was the triggerman, but testimony this week suggested it was Stansberry Sr.
All three suspects were charged with second-degree murder because, under New York state law, anyone who participates in a felony, in this case robbery, in which a death occurs can be held criminally responsible for the death.
Schindler argued unsuccessfully that there was no force used in the marijuana theft and therefore no robbery. Quiles, however, testified that Stansberry Sr. pointed a handgun at his chest after he handed the man the bag of marijuana.
In its verdict, the jury agreed with the prosecution’s argument that the marijuana had been forcibly taken from Quiles and that Lancaster was killed either during the commission of that robbery or during the immediate flight from the crime.