By Jeff Harrell
The Staten Island Advance
NEW YORK — Last month, a Brooklyn jury allowed Robert Ellis to skirt a murder conviction in the execution of NYPD Officer Russel Timoshenko of Bay Terrace.
Yesterday, Ellis was shipped off to prison for 15 years on three separate guilty verdicts of second-degree weapons possession.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Plummer Lott set the sentences to run concurrently, which Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch called disgraceful.
“There was no courage on the bench,” Lynch said.
Ellis, 35, Dexter Bostic, 36, and Lee Woods, 30, all of Queens, were all tried last month on charges of murder, attempted murder and weapons possession stemming from the slaying of Timoshenko, 23, and the attempted murder of his partner, now-Detective Herman Yan, during a traffic stop in Brooklyn in July 2007.
Timoshenko was shot twice in the face and died a few days later, after lying in a coma. Yan’s bulletproof vest intercepted a slug that might have proved fatal.
Ellis, Bostic and Woods were tried before separate juries because the trio had made statements implicating each other.
Bostic was convicted of the top count of murder. He faces 25 years to life in prison when he returns to Brooklyn Supreme Court Feb. 26 for sentencing in front of Justice Lott.
Woods’ jury deadlocked and Lott declared a mistrial. Jury selection in Woods’ retrial is scheduled to begin Feb. 23.
Prosecutors charged that Bostic and Ellis were riding in a stolen BMW SUV driven by Woods when the officers pulled it over at about 2 a.m. at the corner of Rogers Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard in Crown Heights.
As the officers approached either side of the vehicle, Bostic shot Timoshenko in the face with a .45-caliber pistol and Ellis allegedly opened fire on Yan with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Police said Woods had a loaded Tec-9 but didn’t fire the weapon.
Police found the SUV abandoned about a block away. Investigators retrieved chicken bones in a Popeyes container outside the driver’s door. A Schweppes ginger ale bottle was recovered from the front seat.
A DNW expert told all three juries that DNA lifted from two chicken bones matched Bostic’s genetic sample.
Ellis’ DNA also matched samples taken from a chicken bone and the Schweppes bottle, as well as “scrapings” lifted from a sweatshirt found a few blocks from the murder scene.
The jury’s decision to convict Ellis only on three counts of weapons possession left Timoshenko’s family in Bay Terrace stunned, and outraged police throughout the city.
“To think that this mongrel (Ellis) was just carrying a gun is a disgrace, and it has a chilling effect on every New York City police officer,” Lynch, PBA president, said last month following the verdict.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly added that trying Woods again would only cause more hardship for Timoshenko’s family.
“How much can one family stand?” Kelly asked in the wake of the verdicts. “We pray that the Timoshenkos will be given the strength to endure.”
Tatyana Timoshenko testified briefly during the trial, which was held in one room in front of three separate juries at the same time. “I had only just one son,” Mrs. Timoshenko said.
Born in Belarus, Timoshenko graduated from Tottenville High School in 2001 and from the Police Academy in January 2006.
Copyright 2009 Advance Publications, Inc.