MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a jury has convicted a former Hempstead pizza delivery man of manslaughter for the July 2014 death of a teenager that he attacked with a machete after a disagreement about a dice game.
David Sadler, 47, of Hempstead, was found guilty after one day of deliberations of Manslaughter in the 1st Degree (a B violent felony) and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 3rd Degree (a D violent felony).
The defendant faces a determinate sentence of 5 to 25 years in prison on the top count. He was remanded after the verdict and is due back in court on April 1 for sentencing. The trial lasted approximately three days.
“The teenage victim in this case, Terrence Grier, Jr., had his entire life ahead of him, but was brutally attacked and killed by the defendant over a petty disagreement after a dice game,” DA Singas said. “While nothing could ever erase this senseless killing, I sincerely hope that this verdict will bring some measure of comfort to a family that was robbed of their 17-year old son, grandson and brother.”
DA Singas said that on the afternoon July 18, 2014, Sadler was playing a dice game on Albemarle Avenue in Hempstead with the victim, 17-year old Terrence Grier, Jr. The defendant and the victim were in a dispute after the game and Sadler returned to the area brandishing a machete. Grier told the defendant that if he wanted to fight that he should drop the knife, but Sadler refused and struck him in the neck with the machete. The victim suffered significant injuries to his jugular vein and died shortly afterwards.
Sadler entered into his car, but witnesses attempted to stop him and his car was damaged in the process. The defendant was arrested at his place of work, where he was found after he had fled, by Hempstead Police Department officers.
Sadler was acquitted of the grand jury indictment charge of Murder in the 2nd Degree.
Assistant District Attorney Martin Meaney of DA Singas’ Major Offense Bureau is prosecuting the case. Sadler is represented by Brian Carmody, Esq.