LI Man Pleads Guilty After 'Senseless' Fatal Shooting: DA

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A Riverhead man pleaded guilty Wednesday after a fatal shooting during a 2021 robbery, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Marcus Reid, 24 pleaded guilty before Acting Supreme Court Justice Stephen L. Braslow to first-degree manslaughter, a felony, and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, for the fatal shooting of Branzel Bonner, 25, during the December, 2021 robbery, Tierney said.

According to court documents and the defendant’s admissions during his guilty plea allocution, on December 2, 2021, at about 9:50 a.m., in the woods behind 50 Middle Country Road in Coram, Reid fired multiple rounds from a semiautomatic .40 caliber handgun at the ground below Bonner’s feet, demanding that he hand over his fanny pack.

When Bonner refused, Reid repeatedly shot Bonner in the torso; he then attempted to remove Bonner’s fanny pack from his motionless body, but was unsuccessful, so he instead removed the contents, the DA said. Reid then fled the scene, Tierney added.

Bonner was pronounced dead at Stony Brook University Hospital within an hour of the shooting, Tierney said.

In his haste to flee, Reid dropped his own debit card at the scene, which was recovered by law enforcement and was also captured on surveillance video, Tierney said.

Reid is due back in court on March 11 and is expected to be sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision, Tierney said

He is being represented by Christopher Brocato, who was not immediately available for comment.

"A life was taken far too soon," Tierney said. "While this plea cannot undo the victim’s death, I thank the prosecutor on this case for securing the defendant’s conviction and holding him accountable for this senseless fatal shooting."