Killer’s stepfather accused of ordering the hit in Mount Vernon teen’s slaying case

A 14-year-old Mount Vernon boy was fatally shot last year because his killer’s stepfather provided the killer with the gun and encouraged him to “do what he had to do,” a prosecutor told a jury in the stepfather’s murder trial Wednesday.

“But if this defendant had provided the gun, Zyaire Fernandez would be alive today,” Deputy District Attorney Adrian Murphy said in his opening statement in Westchester County Court.

Phillip Ferrell, 48, is charged with second-degree murder, second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence for his alleged actions before and after Fernandez was killed on March 9, 2023. The courtyard of the Levister Towers apartment complex.

Killer Tyrese Coghiel pleaded guilty to murder and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. If he testifies honestly, his murder conviction will be reduced to manslaughter and he will avoid a possible life sentence and be sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Defense attorney Angelo MacDonald told jurors that the agreement should give them pause because Coghiel would take the witness stand and say what was expected of him.

“Does the agreement trump the actual statement?” MacDonald asked. “How do we know if he’s telling the truth?”

What happened the day Zyaire Fernandez was killed?

On the morning of the murder, Coghiel and a relative were helping Ferrell move from his apartment in Levister Towers to Yonkers.

Fernandez was hanging out with two teenagers, one of whom was Ferrell’s nephew. When they saw Coghiel, they asked him if he was “rolling”, which is slang for being part of a gang. Coghiel continued on his way and soon encountered the trio again. However, this time one had a gun and the other had a knife.

Coghiel walked away again and soon Ferrell was yelling at his nephew. Murphy said they had a simmering fight because Ferrell thought his nephew had stolen from him in the past.

Ferrell went upstairs to his apartment to get the keys. But by then, Murphy said, there was no longer an “imminent threat” because the nephew and Fernandez were on the other side of the building.

“The die is cast,” Murphy said when Ferrell returned, went to the trunk, opened the lockbox and revealed a loaded 9mm semiautomatic pistol. The prosecutor said Coghiel already knew what needed to happen when Ferrell told him to “do what he had to do.”

Coghiel grabbed the gun, chased the three and fired at least five shots. But while Ferrell’s nephew was the target, it was Fernandez who was shot in the back and lay dying in the courtyard a short time later.

ADA: Video captured what Coghiel and Ferrell did next

Murphy told jurors that video surveillance would later show Coghiel was dropped off at his girlfriend’s apartment, where he wrapped the gun in clothing and hid it under the bed. The video also shows Ferrell going there and grabbing the gun because Murphy said he knew it tied him to the murder.

Coghiel was arrested days later in Brooklyn. The gun was later found in a locked box next to ammunition and two improvised explosive devices in the oven at Ferrell’s Yonkers apartment.

Ferrell initially faced only weapons, obstruction and tampering charges. But the murder charge was added to a second indictment after Coghiel detailed his stepfather’s role.

MacDonald said jurors must weigh a killer’s motivations for making a deal and that otherwise prosecutors won’t be able to prove Ferrell’s intent to commit murder.

“If they can’t (prove intent), he’s not guilty,” MacDonald said.

This article first appeared in the Rockland/Weschester Journal News: Phillip Ferrell murder trial begins with killing of Mount Vernon NY teenager