Man gets 35 years in slaying of romantic rival
Greene County couple hid musician’s body under his house
The man who shot and killed a romantic rival in 2017 and then hid the body under a house will served 35 years to life in prison for his crimes, court officials said.
Carlos Graham, 32, was found guilty of second-degree murder in February by a Greene County jury for killing Brandyn Dayne Foster, a musician.
On Friday he was sentenced to 25 years to life on the murder charge.
Graham was also convicted of weapon possession, grand larceny, concealment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence, adding more years to the sentence, the court said.
Foster, 31, was a rapper and father. He was also the son of the renowned jazz drummer Al Foster.
During the February trial, District Attorney Joseph Stanzione said Graham and Foster had once been close friends until Graham began dating Foster’s former girlfriend, Sade Knox.
All three lived next to each other on Tool House Road in Catskill.
The ill-will culminated on Jan. 26, 2017, when Foster, walked over to Knox’s home.
Graham, Knox and a friend, Ashton Adams, had bought a revolver earlier that day.
Prosecutors said that Adams and Graham hid in a closet in Knox’s bedroom while Knox texted Foster to lure him over to her house. Graham claimed that Foster came over armed with a shotgun to confront Knox over her affair with Graham and became violent with her, according to court documents. But the prosecution said that the killing was premeditated.
When Foster was there, Graham jumped out of the closet and shot Foster twice, once with the revolver and a second time with a sawed-off shotgun. Graham said it was an accident.
After shooting him, Graham hit Foster over the head with the butt of the gun, breaking it in half, according to court documents.
Graham said that he cut away the blood-stained carpet, padding and flooring before he and Knox shoved Foster’s body and the weapons into the crawl space below the home.
He then covered the body in nine inches of cement, telling the jury he didn’t think anyone would believe that the shooting was in self-defense.
Foster’s mother, Bonnie Steinberg of Woodstock, reported her son missing four days later.
State Police and investigators searched for Foster’s body on Tool House Road in October 2017 and returned there to find his remains on Feb. 6, 2018.
Graham was arrested a week later.
Knox and Adams were charged with concealment of a crime. Knox was also accused of tampering with evidence and second degree murder. It is unclear, at this time, what the status of their cases are.