A man who fatally stabbed a gay, Black dancer at a Brooklyn gas station in July 2023 was convicted on Monday of manslaughter as a hate crime, but a jury acquitted him of the most serious charges against him.
The man, Dmitriy Popov, was 17 years old when he plunged a five-and-a-half-inch blade into the chest of the dancer, O’Shae Sibley, striking his heart.
The attack happened after Mr. Popov and a group of his friends began yelling racist and homophobic slurs at Mr. Sibley and his friends, all gay men of color who had been blasting Beyoncé while filling up a rental car with gas, prosecutors said.
Mr. Popov, who claimed self-defense, faced a total of nine charges, including two counts of second-degree murder as hate crimes, two counts of first-degree manslaughter as hate crimes and aggravated harassment because of race, religion or sexual orientation.
On Monday, the jury acquitted Mr. Popov, who is white, of several charges, including second-degree murder as a hate crime. They convicted him on several other charges, including manslaughter as a hate crime, which carries a sentence of eight to 25 years, and aggravated harassment.
The jurors spent about two and a half days deliberating before convicting Mr. Popov of killing Mr. Sibley, 28, whose death led to vigils across the city, including a gathering at the Mobil gas station on Coney Island Avenue where the stabbing occurred. Beyoncé’s website read “Rest in Power O’Shae Sibley” days after the killing.
Ms. Popov’s mother wept as the jury declared him not guilty of the most serious charges. About a dozen of Mr. Sibley’s friends sat across from her in the courtroom. Several of them shook their heads or wiped tears away as the verdict was read. Joshua Sanchez, 34, who was with Mr. Sibley the night he was killed and testified about what he witnessed, put his hands over his face in shock.
Outside the courthouse, Mr. Sanchez said that the outcome felt like “half justice.” Mr. Popov will do time, but “he got off easy.”
Mr. Sanchez said that he saw firsthand the “hate that came out of his mouth, out of his soul” when Mr. Popov attacked Mr. Sibley.
“It didn’t feel like manslaughter,” Mr. Sanchez said outside the courthouse.
Mr. Popov, now 20, took the stand during the trial and sought to convince the jury that he had believed Mr. Sibley and his friends intended to hurt him that night on July 29, 2023. He said that he had felt overwhelmed and scared as Mr. Sibley and two of his friends surrounded him and that he stabbed Mr. Sibley only when he “ran at me” and punched him in the head.
“I was panicking and started shaking,” Mr. Popov testified on May 27. “It was chaotic. I didn’t know what just happened. It all happened so quick.”
Mr. Popov’s lawyer, Mark Pollard, argued that his client was too young to act reasonably in the moment, citing research that says the brain is not fully developed until a person is 25 years old. At the time of the killing, Mr. Popov was living with his mother in Sheepshead Bay and working at a smoke shop that his family ran.
During closing arguments, Mr. Pollard said that Mr. Popov had made a split-second decision as he tried to retreat.
On Monday, Mr. Pollard said that his client was relieved he was not facing life in prison, but he planned to appeal the manslaughter conviction.
“We’re disappointed in the jury’s verdict,” he said. “This 17-year-old young man did not intentionally murder Mr. O’Shae Sibley. I’m glad they considered that.”
Mr. Popov’s parents declined to comment.
Prosecutors had pushed back on Mr. Popov’s self-defense claim, arguing that Mr. Sibley was trying to get the knife away from Mr. Popov and that he had plenty of opportunities to leave but instead chose to escalate tensions.
“He was not just parachuted into the moment when O’Shae runs at him to disarm him,” said Sarah Jafari, a senior assistant district attorney. “It was not justified. It’s not self-defense. It was not legal. It was murder.”
Under New York State law, people cannot claim self-defense if they started a confrontation and did not walk away if given the chance.
During deliberations, jurors seemed to struggle to understand the laws behind the charges, specifically the murder charges, and asked Judge Dena Douglas three times to read them aloud in court. It was a lengthy process as Judge Douglas frequently stopped to read the law again, appearing to correct herself. Jurors declined to comment after the verdict.
During cross-examination, Mr. Popov admitted that he had never seen any weapons on Mr. Sibley or his friends. He also said he had thrown away the phone he had been using to record his interactions with Mr. Sibley and his friends just before the stabbing.
Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, noted that the verdict came at the beginning of Pride month and said he hoped it would give Mr. Sibley’s friends “some measure of solace” to know Mr. Popov would be held accountable.
Mr. Sibley’s life “was cut short when he was killed by this defendant, who couldn’t stand the sight of O’Shae and his friends just being themselves and living their lives openly as Black gay men,” Mr. Gonzalez said in a statement.
Mr. Sanchez said he had not been the same since Mr. Sibley’s death, constantly worrying that he could be attacked because he is gay.
“I’m always looking behind my shoulder,” he said. “Before, that wasn’t a thought in my mind, especially living in New York City.”
The day of the killing, Mr. Sibley and his friends had been at a beach in New Jersey and stopped for gas on their way back home.
Surveillance footage showed Mr. Sibley, bare-chested and in pink swim trunks, leaning against a column at the gas station, eating sunflower seeds and, at one point, raising one leg gracefully as Beyoncé played from the car. His friend, Otis Pena, shimmied up and down the parking lot, laughing.
In that moment, “we were still happy,” testified Philip Wilson, 38, a friend of Mr. Sibley’s who had been driving the rental car that night.
“We were living our best lives,” he said.
Mr. Popov and his friends then emerged from the gas station, recording them and telling them to leave, mocking their painted nails and calling them gay slurs. One of the teenagers said he was Muslim and was offended by them.
The footage shows Mr. Sibley calmly walking up to the group, still holding his sunflower seeds as he talked to them.
Mr. Popov’s friends eventually left, still yelling, and Mr. Sibley and his friends also turned away. But Mr. Popov remained, still filming and calling out at them. When Mr. Sibley and some of his friends walked back, Mr. Popov pulled out his knife and held it toward one of Mr. Sibley’s friends.
Mr. Sibley ran toward Mr. Popov, who rammed the knife into his chest and then fled, according to the video. Mr. Sibley fell to the ground, his pink swim trunks covered in blood, before his friends and nearby witnesses ran to help him.
The police and emergency technicians soon arrived. One officer’s body camera captured the sound of someone trying to comfort Mr. Sibley.
“It’s OK, my man,” the person said. “You’re going to be OK.”
Wesley Parnell contributed research.
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
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