Danny Williams, a Jamaica fugitive, featured on the television show “America’s Most Wanted,” has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for a 2002 shooting that killed one man and injured another.
Williams, then 34, and another man, Reginald Artis, then 21, approached the two victims in front of 87-22 148 St. in Jamaica at around midnight that May 28, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Both opened fire, Williams with a shotgun and Artis with a handgun. The victims Roshawn Tate, 22, and Mark Belizaire, 21, were both hit by fire from Williams’ gun. Tate was killed and Belizaire left permanently disabled.
Williams and Artis had been robbed earlier that day and believed their targets were somehow involved.
The defendants were indicted for the shooting by a Queens County grand jury on July 22, 2004. But it wasn’t until he had spent years on the lam that Williams was arrested on July 19, 2010, in Jackson, NJ, by the NYPD’s Fugitive Task Force and local police following two appearances on “America’s Most Wanted.”
“Violence such as this will not be tolerated on the streets of Queens County,” District Attorney Richard Brown said in a prepared statement. “The defendant fled the jurisdiction and was able to delay justice —but ultimately he was captured with the help of ‘America’s Most Wanted,’ and will now begin serving a lengthy prison sentence.”
Williams was convicted last month of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. He received a sentence of 50 years to life on Feb. 29, with an additional 1 1/3 to four years in prison for a probation violation.
Artis was arrested on Oct. 10, 2003 and held without bail. On April 11, 2006, he pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and was sentenced on Jan. 7, 2008, to nine years in state prison.
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