Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Friday, May 31, that a 28-year-old Bronx man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the fatal shooting of a second 23-year-old man after a dispute in the Pelham Parkway section of The Bronx in 2021.

 

Reacting to the sentencing, Clark said, “Another member of our community is dead after an argument ends in gunfire. The defendant will spend 15 years in prison for this senseless crime.”

 

Clark said the defendant, Demille Simms, 28, of Holland Avenue in Pelham Parkway was sentenced to 15 years in prison and five years post-release supervision by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio. She said Simms pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter earlier this year on Feb. 14.

According to the investigation, on May 6, 2021, at around 3:07 a.m., on Cruger Avenue, the defendant and Abdessamad Essafoui, 23, got into an argument. Simms pulled out a gun and shot Essafoui one time in the chest. He died at NYC Health + Hospitals + Jacobi from his injuries.

 

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Burim Namani, counsel in the Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Christine Scaccia, chief of the Homicide Bureau, and under the overall supervision of James Brennan, deputy chief of the Trial Division, and Theresa Gottlieb, chief of the Trial Division.

Clark thanked NYPD Detective Faton Alickaj of Bronx Homicide and retired Detective Frank Cirminelo of the 49th Precinct for their work on the investigation.