Dmitry Popov has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the hate-crime killing of O'Shea Sibley, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office announced. The punishment closes one of the most closely watched hate crime cases in the borough in recent years, coming after a jury convicted Popov last month of manslaughter as a hate crime while acquitting him of the more serious murder charge.
The verdict means the jury rejected the most serious charge against Popov. He was acquitted of murder, with the panel declining to find that he had intentionally killed Sibley. At the same time, jurors did hold him criminally responsible by convicting him of manslaughter, and they attached a hate crime finding to that count.
The case dates back about three years. O'Shea Sibley, who was 28, was fatally stabbed by Popov, who was then 17 years old at the time of the attack. The stabbing took place at a gas station in the Midwood section of Brooklyn in 2023, where a confrontation erupted after Popov hurled homophobic and anti-Black slurs at Sibley and his friends as they danced, and Popov, though 17 at the time, was tried as an adult.
At sentencing, the judge handed Popov 20 years in prison on the manslaughter as a hate crime conviction, near the upper end of the range he had faced. Beyond the manslaughter count, he was also convicted of menacing, aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon, charges that reflected the threatening conduct that preceded the fatal stabbing.
The case had drawn significant attention well before the verdict. It was regarded as one of the most prominent hate crime prosecutions in Brooklyn in recent years, with the question of whether bias motivated the killing at the heart of the proceedings. The jury's conclusion that the manslaughter was a hate crime answered that question directly.
The outcome drew an emotional response from those connected to the case. Someone who was present the night of the killing said the then 17-year-old had not intentionally murdered Sibley, welcoming the jury's decision to acquit on the murder charge. The reaction underscored how divisive the question of intent had been throughout the case.
By splitting the verdict, finding Popov not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime, the jury had landed on a middle path between the competing accounts of what happened that night. With the 20-year sentence now handed down, the long legal process over the killing of O'Shea Sibley, a case that came to symbolize the dangers faced by LGBTQ people, has reached its conclusion.