Death Penalty Out of the Question For Accused in Timoshenko Case
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The death penalty is out of the question for three men indicted on charges of killing a police officer, according to a decision yesterday by the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes.
After a grand jury returned an indictment charging the men with first-degree murder in the shooting of Officer Russel Timoshenko, Mr. Hynes said he would keep the case, dashing hopes among some police advocates that the case might be tried in federal court, where capital punishment is an option.
Instead, all three defendants, Dexter Bostic, 34, Robert Ellis, 34, and Lee Woods, 29, could face life in prison if they are convicted on the top counts of first-degree murder and aggravated murder of a police officer.
The 21-count indictment did not differentiate among the defendants, who face the same set of charges.
Timoshenko was shot July 9 in Brooklyn after he and his partner, Officer Herman Yan, pulled over a car they believed was stolen; he died of his injuries July 14.
All three pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday. A lawyer for Mr. Woods, Patrick Magaro, said he would seek a separate trial for his client, who allegedly was driving the car at the time of the incident. At a news conference, Mr. Hynes showed footage from a surveillance camera that captured images of the shooting.
“Everything was over in a matter of seconds,” Mr. Hynes said after using his finger to trace Timoshenko’s figure on a television screen as the officer walked toward the passenger side of the suspects’ vehicle. The video paused just before the officer reached the windows of the car.
After the shooting, Mr. Hynes said, the defendants abandoned the car in a backyard and disposed of three guns, which he displayed yesterday. They then fled, Mr. Hynes said, with two of the suspects making it to town in the Pocono Mountains before Pennsylvania police picked them up.
Mr. Hynes said Timoshenko’s shooting differed from a recent case in Staten Island that resulted in a death penalty sentence for a defendant charged with killing an officer. In that case, the accused killer, Ronell Wilson, was charged with trafficking illegal guns across state lines, a federal offense, in addition to the killing of the officer. “There is no such federal connection in this case,” Mr. Hynes said.
