The man accused in a fatal White Plains shooting four and a half years ago allegedly fired six shots into the victim's car and then a seventh as the victim lay on the ground, a prosecutor said at the defendant's arraignment.
Shawn McLaurin, 43, was denied bail Wednesday, July 29, after pleading not guilty in Westchester County Court to charges of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the Dec. 31, 2021, killing of 49-year-old Shawn Jefferson.
In seeking a reasonable bail, defense lawyer Anthony Mattesi questioned the strength of the prosecution case and insisted his client was not a flight risk.
Late on New Year's Eve 2021, after an earlier physical confrontation on Ferris Avenue, Jefferson was in the driver's
seat of his car near his North Kensico Avenue home when McLaurin allegedly pulled up, got out of his car and fired six shots through the window at Jefferson. When Jefferson fell out the passenger door, McLaurin walked around the car and fired a seventh shot before fleeing, Assistant District Attorney Daniel Flecha said.
Despite video of the shooting, Flecha attributed the delay in arresting McLaurin to witnesses' unwillingness to get involved and the defendant's failure to maintain consistent residency. But Mattesi suggested the witnesses had only agreed to cooperate as a way of getting leniency for their own criminal charges.
The defense lawyer said McLaurin has remained in White Plains and Yonkers and worked in a maintenance job in the Bronx to support his family, particularly his ailing father.
"My client was hiding in plain sight, but he wasn't really hiding," Mattesi told Westchester Judge Melissa Loehr.
McLaurin had three prior felony convictions, four bench warrants and three probation revocations, which Flecha cited as reasons he wasn't a good bail risk. Mattesi countered that the crimes and violations were a decade or more old.
Loehr acknowledged McLaurin's community ties but appeared swayed by the multiple warrants and probation revocations and ordered him held without bail at the county jail to await trial.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Defendant in 2021 White Plains fatal shooting enters plea, denied bail
