2 men charged with killing girl, 12
City police official praises community for helping ID suspects
Two city men have been charged with murder in last week’s fatal shooting of 12-year- old D’Janeira Mason in her Midtown home.
Gilbert Thomas, 24, and Robert Nikia “Nikki” James, 46, both of Kingston, were charged with second-degree murder, felony assault and criminal use of a firearm in connection with the Dec. 17 fatal shooting at 60 Van Buren St., state police said Thursday morning.
James was arrested at 3:52 p.m. Wednesday, and Thomas at 12:21 a.m. Thursday. Both were being held in the Ulster County Jail without bail on Thursday.
State police executed a search warrant at 49 Franklin St. in Midtown Kingston on Wednesday in connection with the fatal shooting, a city police official said, and investigators were seen removing items from the home. (State police took over the investigation from the Kingston police shortly after D’Janeira was killed.) An Ulster County Jail official said Thursday that James lives at
49 Franklin St. and Thomas is a former resident of that address who now lives at 47
Franklin St.
D’Janeira died at the scene of a gunshot wound to her head, authorities said. Her 10-year-old brother, Dasane, also was shot and was reported to be in stable condition at the MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie on Friday with a gunshot wound to his arm. Police have said he is expected to recover.
Ulster County District Attorney David Clegg said both children were in their home in a rear apartment at 60 Van Buren St. about
8 p.m. Dec. 17, when shots were fired into the house, striking the two children. Clegg called it a “depraved” and targeted attack.
Authorities have not said who they believe fired the shot or shots that killed D’Janeira and wounded her brother, and they have declined to provide a possible motive in the case.
Online tips
Starting the day after the homicide, friends and relatives of the victims began posting on Facebook that Thomas was involved. Prior to the arrests, though, state police Troop F spokesman Steven Nevel repeatedly refused to say if Thomas was a suspect or even a person of interest in the case.
Asked about the Facebook posts on Thursday, Kingston Police Detective Lt. Thierry Croizer said the community’s involvement in helping to identify the suspects “was great to see.”
“I wish this would set a precedent and help us also with the other [homicide] investigations. … I’m happy to see this one resolved.”
Three recent homicides in Kingston — two in the fall of 2019 and one this past summer — have not been solved, and police have said a lack of cooperation by people who might have pertinent information has complicated the investigations.
In the latest case, though, Crozier said that because a child was killed and another was wounded, “the community stood up and wouldn’t allow this to happen to any of their children.”
Ryan, Noble react
Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, in a statement issued Thursday morning, called the arrests of James and Thomas “welcome news” and said that “as we continue to grieve and mourn, we must at the same time ensure swift and sure justice for this heinous crime.”
“As a community, let us summon the collective will to stop this cycle of violence,” Ryan said. “We must do better.”
Kingston Mayor Steve Noble, also in a Thursday morning statement, said, “Our community still feels such a terrible loss but this (the arrests) is an important step in our healing process.
“We, as a community, must continue to take a stand against violence and continue to invest in community centers, youth programs and restorative justice initiatives,” Noble said.
About the victims
The obituary for the slain girl said she was the daughter of Aleshia Keener of Kingston and the late Kevin Kunta Mason of Ellenville.
A seventh- grader at J. Watson Bailey Middle School in Kingston, D’Janeira was remembered in her obituary as a “loving and bubbly girl” who was adored by many people.
Dasane is a fourth-grader at George Washington Elementary School, according to the Kingston school district, which has offered counseling to families.
Criminal records
Both of the suspects in the Dec. 17 case have criminal records involving violent acts.
James was charged in October with the felony of criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and was held at the Ulster County Jail from Oct. 14 to 19, when he was released by court order, according to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office.
James was released from state prison in January 2018 after serving six years for felony weapons possession in connection with attempted murder in Kingston in the summer of 2010. And on Jan. 24 of this year, he was charged with a parole violation and served 90 days in the Ulster County Jail.
James also served about two years of a 5½-year sentence in state prison, from May 2007 to July 2009, in a separate weapons possession case.
The Sheriff’s Office said Thomas was held at the Ulster County Jail from June 27 to July 3, 2019, after being arrested by Kingston police for criminal sale of a controlled substance, a felony. He, too, was released by court order.
The dispositions of the two drug cases were not immediately available Thursday.
In February 2017, Thomas was indicted by an Ulster County grand jury on a felony charge of assault in connection with the July 18, 2016, stabbing of a 44-yearold man in Midtown Kingston. Police said at the time that the victim suffered stab wounds to his chest.
The outcome of that case also was not immediately available Thursday.
Rash of killings
The Dec. 17 homicide was the fifth shooting death in the city of Kingston since October 2019. Only one of the previous four has resulted in an arrest.
There have been no arrests in the fatal shootings of:
• Daniel Thomas, 27, near the intersection of Cedar and Prospect streets in Midtown, on Oct. 24, 2019.
• Myron T. Moye Jr., 36, in a house on West O’Reilly Street, also in Midtown, on Nov. 1, 2019.
• Romero K. Underwood, 47, in his St. James Street home in Midtown on July
11.
Cory Q. Smith, 35, of the Bronx, was charged with second- degree murder on March 5 in the Feb. 11 fatal shooting of Ashley Stephan Dixon, 31, outside a building at the Stuyvesant Charter apartment complex on Sheehan Court
Homicides in Kingston have been relatively rare over the past few decades, and the city sometimes has gone several years in a row without a killing.
It also was rare prior to last fall for a homicide or other violent crime in Kingston not to result in an arrest within a short period of time.
Before Thomas’ shooting death, the last homicide in Kingston was in November 2017, and there were no homicides in the city in 2016 or 2015. There were a total of four from 2010 to 2014.
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The Van Buren Street shooting remains under investigation, and anyone with information is asked to call state police at (845) 338-1702. All calls will be kept confidential.
State police said they were assisted in their investigation by the Kingston Police Department, Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and town of Ulster Police Department.