Man convicted of killing Poughkeepsie father

WHITE PLAINS – The 2023 murder of 53-year-old Ernest Wilson of Poughkeepsie was sentenced to 30 years in prison following the conviction of Reginald McClure, 40, of Peekskill, according to Westchester County Prosecutor Miriam Rocah.

After pleading guilty on May 17, McClure, who already has a felony conviction, was sentenced November 7 before New York State Supreme Court Judge James McCarty in Westchester County to 25 years on each count of manslaughter sentenced to five years for manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

Rocah said: “Through this brazen act of gun violence, this defendant left children traumatized and fatherless. Now that this defendant has been removed from our streets and brought to justice, we hope that the family of Ernest Wilson can begin to find peace and healing.”

The sentences for the firearms charge run concurrently and consecutively to the 25-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

On May 21, 2023, at approximately 7:32 p.m., Wilson dropped off his child at her home on Sherman Avenue in Peekskill, along with the child's mother, McClure's girlfriend. When the victim saw McClure walking down the street, she held out her hand to greet him. Instead of shaking his hand, McClure fired six shots from a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, hitting Wilson twice.

The victim's two children witnessed the shooting.

Wilson was transported to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he died as a result of his injuries three days later on May 24, 2023.

McClure fled the scene but was apprehended and arrested at a Yonkers hotel on May 25, 2023, following an investigation by the Peekskill Police Department and the FBI's Westchester Safe Streets Task Force. At the time of the arrest, the defendant was illegally in possession of two loaded firearms.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, one of the children said: “My father was a wonderful man… and now I can never have a birthday with my birthday twin again, I could never joke with my father again and… I can never look at myself again our favorite Marvel movies… They took away the most precious thing in my life… my father.”