Jury Finds NYC Man Guilty Of 2018 Tarrytown Murder

TARRYTOWN, NY — A New York City man was found guilty Wednesday of murdering a Tarrytown woman.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said Thursday that Cynell Brown, 32, was convicted by a jury after a four-week trial of the 2018 murder of Jessica Wiltse, 34, of Tarrytown.

Brown was found guilty of the following felony charges:

• Second-degree murder.
• Second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
• Fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
• Two counts of tampering with physical evidence.

Rocah said he faces a sentence ranging from a minimum of 15 years to life to a maximum of 25 years to life in state prison when he is sentenced Jan. 12.

Prosecutors said, shortly after 7 a.m. Feb. 27, 2018, Brown used a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol to shoot Wiltse two times in the chest and arm in her home on White Plains Road in Tarrytown.

She was taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where she was pronounced dead.

As detailed during the trial, police found the gun that Brown used to kill Wiltse in a garbage can at a bus stop near her home, as well as a suitcase near the garbage can that contained papers with his name and phone number.

Police also said they found a bag of cocaine that he threw out of a cab’s window as he fled the scene.

Additionally, police found surveillance video showing Brown buying a number of grocery items the night before the murder that were later recovered from Wiltse’s home.

Brown was apprehended by the Port Authority Police Department, with the assistance of the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan the evening of Feb. 27, 2018.

The multi-agency pursuit and investigation was conducted by the Tarrytown Police Department, with the assistance of the Greenburgh Police Department, the Greenburgh Drug and Alcohol Task Force, the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, the Irvington Police Department, the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, the New York State Police, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department, the Westchester County Department of Laboratories and Research and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.