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Long Island Man Convicted For Fatally Stabbing Man In Heart, DA Says

A Long Island man has been convicted of fatally stabbing a man in the heart and killing him on a busy street corner in 2020, authorities announced.

The intersection of Terrace and Fulton Avenues in Hempstead

The intersection of Terrace and Fulton Avenues in Hempstead

Photo Credit: Google Maps street view

At approximately 9 p.m. on June 28, 2020, in Hempstead, Hewlett resident Keith Pooler, now age 56, got into a verbal altercation with 49-year-old Andre Garry, which escalated into violence.

During the subsequent altercation, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said that Pooler pulled out a five-inch steak knife and stabbed Garry in the heart.

He was transported to NYU Langone Hospital Long Island (Winthrop) where he was later pronounced dead on the night of the stabbing.

Donnelly noted that the murder weapon was located by police less than 20 minutes after the fatal stabbing, and Pooler was arrested by detectives from the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad on July 11, 2020.

On Friday, May 13, Donnelly announced that a jury convicted Pooler of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

The trial began on Thursday, May 5, and the jury deliberated less than a day before delivering the guilty verdict, she noted.

Pooler is scheduled to return back to court on Tuesday, June 28, when he will face a maximum sentence of between 25 years and life in prison.


“Keith Pooler escalated a petty dispute into a deadly encounter, which ended with the defendant plunging a knife into Andre Garry’s chest,” Donnelly said in a statement announcing the conviction. “We are pleased with the jury’s verdict, and that the defendant will be held accountable for his decision to take a life that day.”

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