Man convicted in 2015 deadly shooting in Valley Stream

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A California man was convicted for murdering his estranged wife’s boyfriend in a November 2015 shooting on East Hawthorne Avenue in Valley Stream, the county’s district attorney announced on March 28.

Deon Ewers, 51, of Los Angeles, Calif., was found guilty of 2nd-degree murder and 2nd-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The trial lasted approximately two weeks and the jury deliberated for less than a day.

“This defendant went to his estranged wife’s home, shot her boyfriend five times in a fit of rage and killed the 34-year old man as he laid in bed,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a news release. “Deon Ewers claimed that the killing was in self-defense, but jurors rejected that argument and now Ewers faces life in prison for killing an innocent man.”

Singas said that on Nov. 6, 2015, the defendant flew to New York from California. Shortly after his arrival, Ewers visited the home of his estranged wife in Valley Stream at approximately 6:50 a.m. He had stated that the purpose of the visit was to surprise his son and estranged wife. While inside the house, the defendant came upon his estranged wife’s boyfriend, 34-year-old Majid Morris, shot him multiple times, killing him and then fled the scene.

The defendant’s teenage son, who was in the house at the time of the incident, called 911 and the victim was pronounced dead shortly after at 8:04 a.m. at South Franklin Hospital.

Ewers claimed during the trial that the shooting was accidental and in self-defense. Evidence recovered at the scene included five shell casings, bullet fragments in the bed, the victim’s DNA on the defendant’s pants, blood smears on sheets and a pillow with bullet holes.

Police arrested Ewers a day later in Oceanside.

James Koenig, Ewers’s attorney, declined to comment. Ewers is due in court before Acting Supreme Court Judge Meryl Berkowitz on May 5 and faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.