Hempstead Man Pleads Guilty After Fatal 2024 Shooting: DA

MINEOLA, NY. — A Hempstead man pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in connection with the fatal 2024 shooting of Maurice Sinclair Thomas, District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office announced Tuesday.

Prosecutors announced that 32-year-old Hempstead resident Kane Moore had pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon Tuesday. Prosecutors said the charges stemmed from the killing of Thomas, who died after being shot in a Hempstead parking lot in September 2024.

“Kane Moore settled an argument with violence and ended Maurice Sinclair Thomas’ life,” Donnelly said. “My office continues to crack down on illegal guns in our communities, rooting out dealers and traffickers to prevent more senseless tragedies like this one. Kane Moore thought violence was the answer, and he will soon answer for his crimes with decades in prison.”

Donnelly said that Moore and Thomas had been playing cards in the parking lot behind 134 Yale Street in Hempstead at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 21, 2024, when an argument between the two men broke out. During that argument, Moore pulled out a gun and shot Thomas once in the side, Donnelly said. Thomas was taken to NYU Langone Long island Hospital and pronounced dead at 1:37 a.m. that morning, prosecutors said.

As for Moore, prosecutors said he fled the scene and was arrested one month later in Detroit, MI, by members of the Detroit Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, who extradited him to Nassau County on Oct. 31, 2024.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that Moore was, "expected to be sentenced to 25 years in prison on March 16, 2026."