In the early hours of a February morning, a violent encounter in Hempstead, New York, left 28-year-old Matthew Gilreath dead from multiple gunshot wounds. The male victim was standing in a doorway on Terrace Avenue at approximately 2:44 a.m. on February 18, 2019, when an argument broke out between him and another man. A conversation that lasted only a minute escalated into a fatal shooting.
Gilreath was struck multiple times in the head, face, and chest and was later pronounced dead at Nassau University Medical Center.
The investigation into the shooting led to the swift arrest of two individuals. James Wilson, a 35-year-old from Brooklyn, was identified as the shooter and was himself injured during the altercation, sustaining a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was arrested on the day of the shooting. A second man, 31-year-old Raphael Carter of Hempstead, was arrested two days later. Carter was accused of taking the handgun from Wilson after the shooting and hiding it in his apartment; the weapon was never recovered.
James Wilson was subsequently charged with second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. His co-defendant, Raphael Carter, faced charges of criminal possession of a weapon, hindering prosecution, and tampering with physical evidence. In March 2022, a jury found James Wilson guilty of murder and weapons charges after deliberating for less than two hours. He was later sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Raphael Carter had previously pleaded guilty to his charges in January 2020 and was sentenced. During the legal proceedings, Wilson's defense claimed he acted in self-defense, alleging that Gilreath had attempted to rob him and fired first.
