One of the men tied to the killing of a New York City police officer has learned his punishment. Lindy Jones, the 43-year-old driver of the car at the center of the March 2024 deadly shooting of NYPD officer Jonathan Diller, has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to the top count of the indictment against him in Queens Criminal Court.
The plea was entered directly before the judge. Asked whether he therefore pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, Jones answered yes. The charge stemmed from a loaded 9mm pistol that was found in the glove box of his car through a search warrant after the shooting.
Investigators say that was not the only weapon recovered. Jones was charged after police found a second loaded gun in the car, adding to the case that prosecutors built around the vehicle he was driving on the night Officer Diller was killed.
The shooting itself grew out of an ordinary police stop. Prosecutors say Jones was behind the wheel when Diller pulled the car over for a routine traffic stop on Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway, Queens, in 2024. It was during that stop that the encounter turned deadly for the young officer.
The man who fired the fatal shots has already been dealt with by the courts. Prosecutors say it was Jones's passenger, Guy Rivera, now serving a 115-year sentence, who shot and killed Diller. The officer, whose death drew an outpouring of grief across the city, was posthumously promoted to detective.
The guilty plea drew sharply different reactions outside the courtroom. NYPD union president Patrick Hendry pointed to the loaded firearm in the glove compartment and described Jones as a violent repeat offender, while a relative of Jones said he felt the plea was wrong, insisting that Jones had paid his due and should be released.
That final stage has now arrived. On July 14th, a judge sentenced Jones to five years in prison, to be followed by five years of post-release supervision, resolving the criminal case against the driver. His sentence stands far apart from that of Rivera, who was ordered to serve 115 years to life earlier in the spring for firing the shots that killed Diller, in a case that has remained a painful one for the officer's family and the wider police community.