{"id":181592,"date":"2026-04-01T00:26:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T00:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/181592\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T00:26:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T00:26:46","slug":"jury-to-begin-deliberations-in-trial-of-man-charged-with-killing-nypd-det-jonathan-diller-of-massapequa-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/181592\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury to begin deliberations in trial of man charged with killing NYPD Det. Jonathan Diller, of Massapequa Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens jury is set to begin deliberations Wednesday in the murder trial of the man accused of killing NYPD Det.\u00a0Jonathan Diller<\/a> in 2024, after prosecution and defense attorneys gave close to four hours of closing statements Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Queens Supreme Court Judge Michael Aloise will charge\u00a0the jury\u00a0Wednesday morning, and the panel will begin deliberations on whether Guy Rivera, 36, is guilty of first-degree murder in\u00a0Diller’s death during a street incident on March 25, 2024, on Mott Avenue in the Far Rockaway section of Queens.<\/p>\n

Rivera, who has a previous state gun conviction, is on trial not only for the murder of Diller but also the attempted first-degree murder of his partner, NYPD\u00a0Sgt. Sasha Rosen, and various weapons possession charges. He is also charged with second-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n

\"Defendant<\/p>\n

Defendant Guy Rivera looks on as his attorney delivers closing arguments in his murder\u00a0trial Queens Criminal Court on\u00a0Tuesday, March 31. Credit: Jeff Bachner<\/p>\n

In a ruling which could give the jury leeway to rule on a less serious homicide charge, Aloise is allowing the jury to consider a conviction\u00a0of aggravated manslaughter in the first degree. Unlike the first-degree murder charge, which requires intent to kill, the manslaughter count requires intent to cause someone\u00a0serious injury that then results in death.<\/p>\n

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDA Queens jury is set to begin deliberations Wednesday in the murder trial of the man accused of killing NYPD Det.\u00a0Jonathan Diller in March 2024, after prosecution and defense attorneys gave close to four hours of closing statements Tuesday.Queens Supreme Court Judge Michael Aloise will charge\u00a0the jury\u00a0Wednesday morning,Rivera is charged with first-degree murder of Diller,\u00a0the attempted first-degree murder of his partner, NYPD\u00a0Sgt. Sasha Rosen, and various weapons possession charges.<\/p>\n

The first-degree murder charge<\/a> carries a potential prison sentence of life without parole, while the manslaughter offense is a class B felony which could carry a sentence of 20 years to life, depending on other factors such as a defendant’s prior record.<\/p>\n

Aloise\u2019s courtroom was filled with Diller\u00a0family members, including his widow, Stephanie, who at times covered her ears<\/a> when police body camera videos were used by the prosecution and defense to make their points during summation, sometimes depicting the moment Diller was mortally wounded.<\/p>\n

Dozens of police officers and officials with the Police Benevolent Association packed the courtroom.<\/p>\n

During his nearly two-hour summation, defense attorney Jamal Johnson constantly pushed the idea that Rivera didn\u2019t intend to kill Diller when he pulled his 380-caliber handgun, but that the weapon\u00a0fired accidentally. The cause of the discharge, Johnson argued, was the intervention of Rosen who he alleged grabbed Rivera\u2019s gun hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s\u00a0no intent to kill in this case,\u201d Johnson told\u00a0jurors. \u201cAll I ask is that you look at the evidence objectively.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With police body camera recordings and DNA evidence\u00a0showing Rivera had the gun in his possession, Johnson conceded that his client was guilty of one of the weapons possession charges.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Diller, of Massapequa Park, was part of a special community response team, an anti-crime unit, on a dinner break around 5:30 p.m. the day he was killed.<\/p>\n

\"NYPD<\/p>\n

NYPD Det. Jonathan Diller, who was shot and killed in the line of duty in Far Rockaway, Queens, on March 25, 2024. Credit: NYPD via @NYPDPC X account<\/p>\n

Trial evidence showed that Diller and other officers surrounded a Kia Soul in which Rivera was a passenger parked by 19-19 Mott Ave. Moments earlier, before Rivera entered the vehicle,\u00a0Rosen testified he saw the outlines of a firearm in Rivera\u2019s hoodie.<\/p>\n

With Rosen suspicious that Rivera was armed, he, Diller\u00a0and other officers went up to the car at which time Diller, who was standing by the passenger side door, asked Rivera to exit the car. All of the officers\u00a0were dressed in distinctive khaki pants and had on raid jackets emblazoned with the letters \u201cNYPD.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant District Attorney John Kosinski hit hard for 90 minutes on the argument to the jury that the trial evidence proved that Rivera indeed had the intent to kill Diller. Kosinski, who heads to homicide bureau for the office of the Queens District Attorney’s Office, said that Rivera had every chance to throw up his hands, surrender his illegal handgun and cooperate with\u00a0police<\/p>\n

Kosinski also argued that the video evidence and testimony showed that Rosen never touched the gun in Rivera\u2019s hand. He also said there was no gunshot residue on Rosen\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody”was touching that gun other than that defendant,\u201d Kosin”ki said.<\/p>\n

Johnson had suggested\u00a0in his closing that Diller\u2019s police colleagues had a motive to lie or sculpt their testimony to assure a conviction. During the trial, Johnson had also suggested police tried to abuse overtime and racially profiled at times.<\/p>\n

But Kosinski struck back at such defense suggestions, saying \u201cif the”evidence isn\u2019t on your side you have to come up with something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a”guing that Rivera intended to kill Diller, Kosinski told the jury that the defendant had a knife he could have used to confront the officers. But\u00a0instead Rivera chose to use lethal force, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wan”ed to get a jump on the cops,” Kosinski said.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/p>\n

\n\tAnthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens jury is set to begin deliberations Wednesday in the murder trial of the man accused of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[303,9,24,63,104,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-181592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-crime","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-police","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181592","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=181592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}