Defendant and Victim Had Two Children in Common, Argued over Child Support;
Faces up to 25 Years to Life in State Prison
NEW YORK — (NEWS RELEASE) — Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Brooklyn man has been found guilty of second-degree murder for killing his ex-girlfriend following an argument over child support inside of her apartment in the Roosevelt Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Not only did he selfishly and senselessly take the life of a young mother, this defendant left his children essentially without any parents as he will inevitably be sentenced to a very long and well-deserved term behind bars. He has now been held accountable for this senseless murder.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Tristan Anderson, 30, of East New York, Brooklyn. He was convicted yesterday of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino. The defendant will be sentenced on May 1, 2017, at which time he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on July 22, 2014, at approximately 2:00 a.m., the defendant and his ex-girlfriend, Shawntell Davis, 25, who had two children, now ages three and eight, were engaged in an argument over child support, according to the defendant, inside of her apartment, located at 953 DeKalb Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The defendant told police that he pushed the victim to the floor and she may have banged her head and that she was lying on the floor gurgling and wheezing when he left the apartment.
The evidence proved that the victim died as a result of ligature strangulation with blunt impact injury to the head.
