'He killed my friend': New York gang member found guilty in 2019 Lebanon city shooting

It took a jury almost four hours Thursday to find Lindley Thelismond guilty of first-degree homicide.

The result of a three-day trial before Judge Charles Jones Jr., Thelismond, of New York, will face a life sentence in the shooting death of James Jeter, 26, in what officials called a gang-related incident in 2019. Thelismond, who was 17 at the time, was apprehended in the 300 block of North 12th Street within hours of the incident, police said.

Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said the length of time the jurors took to come to a verdict shows how serious they took this case. But Thelismond was old enough to take a life, so he was old enough to take the consequences of his actions, she said.

"He's not a kid, this is not a game, (and) this is not a joke," she said to the jury during her closing arguments.

On Tuesday, Richard Andino testified he was playing video games at his home on the 1000 block of Orchard Ave. in 2019 when an argument broke out. During the argument, Thelismond reached into a drawer, pulled out a 9mm Taurus hand gun and shot Jeter.

"He killed my friend in my house where my kids were, then went home to sleep as if nothing happened," Andino said.

Andino, Thelismond and Jeter were all identified as being members of the Crips, a gang based out of Brooklyn, New York. Andino testified that he was ordered by bosses of the gang to help Thelismond find living arrangements in Lebanon after getting into trouble in Brooklyn.

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Thelismond was in Lebanon to hide because of his alleged connection to a fatal shooting in New York City, according to Graf. The victim lived in Vanderveer, a distinct subsection of the housing projects in Brooklyn.

Jeter said he was from Vanderveer before the argument started, according to Andino's testimony.

"Do I think within that moment (Thelismond) snapped, I absolutely do. But when you pull a trigger three times that's your specific intent to kill," Graf said.

Graf added she is not sure what the status is of the New York shooting investigation

Jeter and Thelismond had never met before coming to Andino's home in 2019, according to testimony. After shooting Jeter, Andino said Thelismond turned the gun on him but was not able to fire because the slide of the gun was locked open.

After Thelismond escaped, Andino said he took his two children and got into a SUV with two other Crip members. As they turned into an alley behind Andino's house, the headlights revealed three guns, including the 9mm, which Andino took.

Andino called 911 after he fled the scene, but lied about his name, where he was, and the circumstances of the shooting in the initial 911 call because of several outstanding warrants. After being stopped and arrested by Lebanon City police, Andino assisted in identifying Thelismond as the shooter and ascertaining his location for authorities.

"That evening, we had no idea who the shooter was, there was nothing in the house that pointed towards Lindley Thelismond," Graf said. "Absent Richard saying this is who it was ... I think there was a solid chance by the next day in daylight hours (Lindley) would have gone back to New York, and we would never have seen him again."

Andino is currently waiting sentencing on several charges, including tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and four counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. During the trial, Graf said Andino was not getting a deal for those sentencings by testifying against Thelismond.

Public defender Kevin Dugan attempted to discredit Andino's testimony throughout the trial, citing when he gave false information about his identity on the 911 phone call and when he was first interviewed by police.

"A zebra does not change its stripes, it cannot change its stripes," he said in his opening arguments Tuesday, adding that Andino was only looking out for himself.

Thelismond declined to testify during the trial.

Officials also presented the jury with the 9mm, which had evidence of gunshot residue and Thelismond's thumb print on the magazine. They also produced a red and grey jacket, that officials said Thelismond left in the alleyway after the shooting.

The knit cuffs of the jacket contained gunshot residue, and forensic scientist Dr. Arthur Young testified that the DNA collected matched 22 of 23 genetic markers to Thelismond's DNA sample. Young added the odds of the DNA belonging to someone else was one-in seven trillion.

"I think (Andino) certainly got us to the point of identifying who did this, but we had a number of corroborative pieces then throughout the trial between fingerprints, ballistics, gunshot residue and DNA," Graf said.

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This trial is not the first case of gang violence, and it certainly won't be the last, according to Graf. But the concern overall is the growing trend of more lethal levels of violence and people not able to grasp the consequences of their actions.

"If you participate in this lifestyle, you end up in one of two areas: You end up dead in the ground or you end up in jail," Graf said. "That's it ... There's no way that at the age of 17 pulling that trigger three times and taking a life was going to be worth now the rest of his, and that's what it's going to cost him."

Thelismond's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 31.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: New York gang member found guilty of homicide in 2019 Lebanon shooting