After two trials a Brooklyn man gets 20 years for killing innocent mother in a shootout

February 6, 2018 By Paul Frangipane Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Darius Dubarry sits in Brooklyn Supreme Court awaiting his sentencing for second-degree murder. Eagle photo by Paul Frangipane

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After a guilty verdict came in exactly 10 years since the death of an innocent Brooklyn mother and nurse, who was killed in crossfire, the victim’s family told her killer they wished he’d spend life in prison.

They got their wish when a judge sentenced him to 20 years to life on Tuesday.

“My life is empty without my sister and I think that Mr. Dubarry should pay for what he’s done,” the late Carol Simon’s sister said in court. “Your Honor, I think he should spend the rest of his life in jail.”

It took two trials, but Darius Dubarry, 37, was convicted of second-degree murder for the second time on Dec. 15, 2017 after his first conviction was overturned.

A decade prior, Simon was walking back to her car while her nine-year-old son waited inside. She found herself caught between a barrage of bullets on Eastern Parkway, screaming she was shot moments later.

“It hurts that I will never see my mother’s face again,” Assistant District Attorney Olatokunbo Olaniyan read from a letter by Simon’s son. “She was my best friend. She was my world.”

Throughout both trials, Dubarry took an argument of self-defense, saying he wrongfully became the target of the Folk Nation street gang. When Humberto Benjamin from the gang showed up at 390 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights looking for vengeance from a previous spat, Dubarry became his prey, trial testimony showed.

The two took the street and opened fire, Dubarry firing about 10 times and accidentally striking Simon in her gut. She died from the injury the same day at Kings County Hospital.

Dubarry was arrested on Dec. 23, 2007 at a Days Inn in Augusta, Georgia, living under a different name.

He asked for the family’s forgiveness at sentencing, saying it was never his intention to kill Simon.

“Every night, I got a picture of your mother, I got a picture of your sister,” Dubarry said looking over to the family. “I look at your mother and I ask God for forgiveness.”

Supreme Court Justice Miriam Cyrulnik addressed both the victim’s and Dubarry’s family before dealing the sentence.

“There are only losers on both sides,” Cyrulnik said. “No prison sentence can bring Carol Simon back.”

Dubarry was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in 2009 but his conviction was overturned when a Court of Appeals judge found his charges of intentional murder and depraved indifference murder should have been mutually exclusive.

He has subsequently spent the last decade in prison and was convicted only of depraved indifference murder in his recent trial.