Jurors in the double-murder trial of Ronell Wilson, an ex-cop accused of gunning down two off-duty NYPD officers in Brooklyn in 2010, resumed deliberations today after closing arguments on Friday.
They will deliberate on whether Wilson was justified in opening fire on the police officers and killing them while the men were walking in an East New York housing development. Wilson has pleaded not guilty, and says he shot the men in self-defense during a dice game. Wilson, who is serving two life sentences for two murders committed while an NYPD officer, has testified that he was a reformed drug dealer who became disillusioned with his career.
Brooklyn’s District Attorney Eric Gonzalez urged jurors to find Wilson guilty in the murders of Detectives Peter Figoski and Kevin J. Wojciechowski, arguing that the fact that Figoski was shot six times — two of the bullets even penetrated his body — showed that Wilson was not merely a self-defending participant in a dice game but that he was more like a hit man who was being paid by another man to execute a police officer.
Wilson’s lawyer, Paul Browne, argued that the night of the shooting, Figoski and Wojciechowski, were coming up on Wilson because he accidentally identified himself as a cop. Browne said his client was an “ungrateful man” who was a victim of an accident and a “thug” with a troubled background who was trying to buy drugs from the officers.