Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Crips gang member was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison for shooting and killing a 17-year-old man in Hempstead in December 2020.
Jayden Woods, 23, of Hempstead, pleaded guilty before Judge Meryl Berkowitz on May 12, 2023, to Manslaughter in the First Degree (a B violent felony) and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (a C violent felony). The defendant was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in prison.
“Seventeen-year-old Omarion Jackson was a beloved older brother to three siblings and had a close relationship with his family, but his life was tragically cut short when he fell victim to a longstanding dispute between Woods and another individual Omarion was with that Monday night,” said DA Donnelly. “Though Omarion was unarmed, the group he was with fired at Woods’ home, and setting out for retaliation, Woods found Omarion and shot him. We continue to send our deepest condolences to Omarion’s family.”
DA Donnelly said that, according to the charges, on December 21, 2020, at approximately 9:33 p.m., five men walked up to the defendant’s residence on Stewart Avenue, including 17-year-old victim Omarion Jackson. Jackson was the only man who approached unarmed.
Four of the men armed with handguns began shooting at the defendant’s home and then fled.
The defendant exited his home uninjured, got into a Jeep Cherokee with his headlights turned off, and drove in the direction that the men fled.
Just moments later, the defendant pulled his vehicle onto Dartmouth Street and saw Jackson standing alone. Woods then fired a handgun four times out of the driver’s side window of his vehicle, striking Jackson twice and killing him. The defendant then fled the area to a nearby hotel.
Wood was arrested by members of the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad in Mineola on March 18, 2021.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Tracy Keeton of the Homicide Bureau. The defendant is represented by Scott Gross, Esq.