A jury found a young Brooklyn man guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime for fatally stabbing professional dancer O’Shae Sibley outside a gas station in 2023, but a jury acquitted him of the more serious charge of murder as a hate crime.
Dmitriy Popov, 20, was convicted after a three-week trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court which featured video from multiple angles of the stabbing, testimony from more than a half-dozen witnesses who said he yelled racist and homophobic slurs at the gay, Black Sibley and his friends before the killing, and a dramatic day last week where the young suspect took the stand in his own defense.
The judge set sentencing for June 30.
O’Shae Sibley, left, wearing pink shorts, and Dmitriy Popov, right, wearing red shorts, are seen in video from the scene. (Obtained by Daily News)
Popov did his defense no favors on the stand, contradicting what was often visible in the video, insisting he never used any slurs, cryptically questioning the motives of two witnesses with no connection to anyone involved in the confrontation — and admitting that he threw away his phone, which contained the only footage from the scene with audio.
The jurors began their deliberations late Tuesday afternoon, and appeared to struggle between the various possible charges: murder as a hate crime, murder without the hate crime designation, and manslaughter as a hate crime. They asked Judge Dena Douglas to read back her instructions on those charges several times.
The confrontation unfolded after Sibley and four of his friends pulled into the Mobil station on Coney Island Ave. near Avenue P in Midwood on the night of July 29, 2023, shirtless and dressed in bathing suits after a day at the Jersey Shore. As they pumped gas, they danced to Beyoncé songs. One of his pals, Otis Pena, was dressed in what was described at trial as a jockstrap.
Popov, who worked at a nearby smoke shop, headed to the Bolla Market attached to the gas station to get a bite to eat. One of Popov’s pals saw Sibley and his friends dancing, and started yelling “Get that gay s— out of here” and “Get that f—–y s— out of here,” several witnesses testified.
Man Stabbed To Death In Brooklyn
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
O’Shae Sibley was fatally stabbed in the torso next to a Mobil gas station on Coney Island Ave. on July 29, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
“There is no question that hate showed up that night in the gas station. And it is because of that hate that O’Shae Sibley was killed,” Assistant D.A Sarah Jafari said in her closing argument to the jury Monday.
Popov pulled out his phone to record the initial encounter. When the two groups split up, he remained outside, still recording Sibley and his friends. All of the dancer’s friends testified Popov called them “f—ing f—–ts” as he recorded,” and two members of a Shomrim volunteer patrol across the street also said they heard the teen use the n-word. On the stand, Popov denied uttering any slurs.
Dmitriy Popov, right, is seen recording O’Shae Sibley before the fatal encounter. (Obtained by Daily News)
Sibley and two of his friends walked back toward Popov, all still in their bathing suits and visibly unarmed.
Popov then pulled out a knife, telling one of them,” Come on, get stabbed,” Jafari said. As Popov pointed his knife at Sibley’s friend, Devon Washington, Sibley rushed to his defense.
“He was left with no choice but to try to disarm the defendant,” the prosecutor said. “Any reasonable person in O’Shae’s shoes that was brave enough would do the same thing.”
Popov, Jafari said, then stabbed Sibley in the heart.
Stephanie Keith / Getty Images
People hug next to a makeshift memorial for O’Shae Sibley on August 5, 2023 in Manhattan. (Photo by Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)
Popov’s lawyer, Mark Pollard, leaned heavily on his client’s youth; he was 17 at the time of the attack. The lawyer insisted the video from the scene proved self defense, showing Sibley lunging at Popov in the key seconds before the stabbing.
“He lunged, ran toward Dmitriy Popov. That’s the case,” Pollard said. “I’m going to ask you to see this all happening from his mind as a 17-year-old. Did he correctly perceive danger in those seconds?”
He added, “These are professional dancers, these guys are in shape, and he was a puny little thing.”
Murder Suspect Dmitriy Popov Coverage
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
Mark Pollard, the attorney for Dmitriy Popov, speaks to the media in Brooklyn on Aug. 11, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Pollard added that Popov didn’t have the luxury of analyzing the footage after the fact of who was doing what before he acted.
“The video has all the reasonable doubt I think that you need,” he said. “Don’t use hindsight, ladies and gentlemen, because he didn’t have the advantage of it.”
Jafari countered, though, that Popov provoked and escalated the confrontation every step of the way — and that he was the only one with a deadly weapon.
“This is a series of events that he and his friends created and he continued and that led to this,” the prosecutors said. “You cannot provoke someone, and then when they stand up for yourself, clutch your pearls and say, ‘Oh my God, I’m so scared, this is self defense!’”