DA Hoovler Announces Bronx Man Convicted After Jury Trial of Attempted Murder of a City of Middletown Police Officer

May 13, 2022

DA Hoovler Announces Bronx Man Convicted
After Jury Trial of
Attempted Murder of a City of Middletown Police Officer

Bronx Man Found Guilty After Jury Trial of Attempted Murder in the First Degree, for shooting of City of Middletown Police Officer in August 2020.

District Attorney to Recommend that the Defendant be sentenced to
Forty Years to Life in State Prison

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Friday, May 13, 2022, Desean Owens, 31, of the Bronx, was found guilty by a jury in Orange County Court of crimes including Attempted Murder in the First Degree, for the August 29, 2020, shooting of City of Middletown Police Officer Evan Barone. The jury also convicted Owens of Aggravated Assault in the First Degree, Assault in the First Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree and Criminal Trespass in the First Degree, for an incident which occurred on August 29, 2020, on Myrtle Avenue in Middletown.

At the trial prosecutors argued that Owens attempted to kill a City of Middletown Police Officer, Evan Barone by shooting him one with a 9 mm pistol. Police Officer Barone had been flagged down while on patrol by a man who stated that the defendant was refusing to leave a house which he had illegally entered. The police officer accompanied the man to the residence. When Owens emerged from the residence, he fired a bullet from a 9 mm pistol at PO Barone, which passed through the officer’s left arm, permanently damaging a nerve and shattering a bone, and which then hit PO Barone in the chest area of his body armor carrier. Police Officer Barone immediately fired back, hitting the defendant before he could fire again. Both Police Officer Barone and the defendant were treated for gunshot wounds.

The Reckless Endangerment charge that Owens was also found guilty of pertained to endangering a car containing children which was behind Police Officer Barone at the time of the shooting. Owens was also convicted of Criminal Trespass in the First Degree for entering and remaining unlawfully in the house while possessing the 9 mm semiautomatic pistol. Owens faces up to forty years to life in prison when he is sentenced on July 27, 2022.

In 2015, the District Attorney’s Office and all Orange County police chiefs adopted a protocol to be used when police officers use deadly physical force that results in death or serious physical injury to a suspect or bystander. The protocol designates the Orange County District Attorney’s Office as the “lead agency” in an officer-involved fatality investigation and provides that the New York State Police will be contacted and will be asked to assist the District Attorney in the investigation. The New York State Police are to process the scene of the incident to preserve all forensic evidence and will perform forensic analysis. The protocol is designed to enhance public confidence in the outcome of officer-involved fatality investigations, by removing the “involved police agency” from the investigation.

At the request of and with the consent of the City of Middletown Police Department, the protocol was activated in this investigation. New York State Police investigators and troopers responded to the scene of the shooting and have recovered evidence and interviewed witnesses. District Attorney Hoovler personally responded to the scene along with Assistant District Attorneys and a District Attorney’s Office criminal investigators. The City of Middletown Police Department fully cooperated in the investigation and, pursuant to the protocol, safeguarded the scene until the State Police arrived.

District Attorney Hoovler thanked the New York State Police and the City of Middletown Police Department for their investigation and their assistance in the prosecution

District Attorney Hoovler highly commended Chief Assistant District Attorney Christopher Borek and Assistant District Attorney Peter Fernandez who prosecuted the case.

“Desean Owens tried to kill a police officer merely because he was a police officer, and likely to avoid getting arrested for a parole violation,” said District Attorney David M. Hoovler. “This defendant turned down a reasonable plea offer and claimed he was innocent despite that overwhelming evidence of his guilt. He has shown absolutely no remorse for either his actions in shooting the police officer or endangering the children who were dangerously within his line of fire. Police Officer Barone was grievously injured in the line of duty, and he heroically prevented this defendant from further injuring him, and others by his fast action in eliminating the threat to life caused by this defendant’s depraved actions. We will be recommending that he be sentenced to the maximum sentence authorized by law.”

A criminal charge is merely an allegation that a defendant has committed a violation of the criminal law, and it is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the State of New York’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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