May 19, 2023 -- Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced today that a Mount Vernon man was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for the murder of 28-year-old Mount Vernon resident Kashawn Smith.
DA Rocah said: “Today, we have secured justice for Kashawn Smith and accountability for this defendant’s callous and violent crime.”
After a three-week trial, a jury on Feb. 7, 2023, found John Bobbitt, 45, guilty of Murder in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, both felonies.
On April 28, 2020, at approximately 10 p.m., following a verbal dispute with the victim, whom he knew, the defendant used a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol to shoot the victim five times, striking him in the head, chest, torso and back, on Millington Street in Mount Vernon. The victim was transported to Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The defendant was located and apprehended at a relative’s home in Newark, New Jersey, on July 13, 2020, following an investigation by the Mount Vernon Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Newark Police Department, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. After his arrest, the defendant was returned to New York.
The case was before Judge Robert Neary in Westchester County Court, and was prosecuted by Homicide Bureau Chief Lana Hochheiser and Bureau Chief Daniel Flecha, both of the Trials and Investigations Division.
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Anna Young, Public Information Officer
(914) 995-6551
ayoung@westchesterda.net
