Soundview Killer Gets 83 Years for 2 murders, Wounding Third Man - DA Says

Police close off a section of courtyard at the Academy Gardens Apartments after Nestor Ventura, 26, was fatally shot on August 18, 2019. -Photo by David Greene

By David Greene 

Bronx Voice 

June 24, 2023

 

BRONX - A Bronx man was sentenced to 83 years to life in prison for a shooting spree that began with one killing in August 2019 and ended with a second killing and the wounding of a third man in November of the same year, prosecutors said.

 

According to the Bronx District Attorney, Dane Richardson, 40, of Bruckner Boulevard was sentenced by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy on June 22.

 

Richardson was convicted of the August 18, 2019 shooting death of Nestor Ventura, 26, who was shot multiple times inside the courtyard of the Academy Gardens Apartments on Commonwealth Avenue in Soundview.

Police sources at the time stated that Ventura had been shot twice in the chest and once in the abdomen and was pronounced deceased a short time later at Jacobi Hospital.

Richardson was also charged with a double shooting that took place on November 17, 2019, along Randall Avenue in which he shot and killed Stephon Brown, 19, and wounded the victim's brother Rory Brown, 21.

 

Police busted Richardson on December 4, 2019, inside a Bronx motel along the New England Thruway.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said after Richardson's sentencing, "The defendant will spend a lifetime behind bars for taking the lives of two people and wounding another man in two acts of senseless shootings within three months on Bronx streets." Clark added, "If you commit gun violence, we will prosecute you."

 

Richardson will serve 25 years to life for the murder of Ventura, 25 years for the manslaughter conviction for Brown’s death and an additional 25 years for the attempted murder of Rory Brown. 

Richardson was given 8 additional years behind bars for his conviction of two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance.