Defendant: Laquanna Kershaw (DOB 9/13/87) 

Feb. 12, 2020 -- Westchester District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced that Laquanna Kershaw of Yonkers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill an eyewitness to a 2016 Mount Vernon bar shooting. Kershaw is a co-defendant of G-Shine Bloods Gang leader Jason Garcia who was found guilty last month of attempted murder and other charges in the same case.

Specifically, Kershaw pleaded guilty to Conspiracy in the Second Degree, a class B Felony.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 25, 2020. State Supreme Court Justice Barry Warhit accepted the plea and remanded the defendant.

Background
While awaiting trial for the 2016 bar shooting, Jason Garcia, Laquanna Kershaw and others conspired to murder a witness to the shooting. Laquanna Kershaw, a girlfriend of Garcia who was allowed to visit the jail, conspired with Garcia to recruit a co-conspirator to find and kill the witness. Kershaw discovered the whereabouts of the witness and shared the information with Garcia and the other conspirators. Kershaw and Garcia discussed at length the whereabouts of the witness and the best place to commit the murder, preferring a location that did not have surveillance cameras. The murder of the witness was thwarted when Westchester County District Attorney’s Office Investigators and members of the Yonkers Police Department arrested co-conspirators Damien Rickard and Cassaundra Dunham just after Dunham, at the direction of Jason Garcia, passed a loaded and operable firearm to Rickard for the purpose of killing the witness.

The case is being prosecuted by members of the Gang, Firearms and Narcotics Bureau.

 In compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 3.6, you are advised that a charge is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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