{"id":102608,"date":"2026-01-16T20:36:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T20:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/102608\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T20:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T20:36:26","slug":"supporters-on-both-sides-pack-court-in-contentious-staten-island-murder-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/102608\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporters on both sides pack court in contentious Staten Island murder case"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Tensions ran high Thursday in state Supreme Court, St. George, during a court appearance for a man charged in a 2020 murder case. <\/a><\/p>\n

The defendant, Kyshief Campbell, 26, was arraigned in November on homicide charges, after he was tracked down by authorities in Georgia. <\/p>\n

The deceased, Vincent Witt Jr., 20, was shot and killed just before 4 p.m. on April 14, 2020, outside 225 Park Hill Ave. in Clifton, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

Witt Jr.\u2019s family said Campbell, who goes by Kaka, was acting out of revenge for a prior robbery. They claimed Witt Jr. wasn\u2019t responsible for the robbery and was wrongly targeted by the defendant.<\/p>\n

In the years that followed, rumors swirled in the neighborhood about the identity of the shooter, as the deceased\u2019s father, Vincent Witt Sr., was vocal about seeking justice for his son.<\/p>\n

The ongoing case, meanwhile, has created a rift in the neighborhood between families and friends of both young men, as was felt in the courtroom Thursday. <\/p>\n

Campbell, who appeared sullen throughout, acknowledged his supporters seated across the gallery. Family and friends of Witt Jr. sat directly behind Campbell. Both sides exited the courtroom in an orderly fashion. <\/p>\n

Justice Alexander B. Jeong adjourned the proceedings to Feb. 27.<\/p>\n

Call with son ends in gunfire<\/p>\n

Witt Sr., previously told the Advance\/SILive.com that he was on the phone with his son<\/a> on the day of the slaying, when he heard what sounded like a scuffle. Then the phone went dead. <\/p>\n

He rushed to where his son\u2019s lifeless body lay face down on the street. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d said Witt Sr. <\/p>\n

At one point during the investigation, Witt Sr. posted on social media that he forgave Campbell, but that Campbell would now have to face God. <\/p>\n

Witt Sr. sat feet from his son\u2019s killer in court Thursday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Tensions ran high Thursday in state Supreme Court, St. George, during a court appearance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-102608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}