Alleged gang members Oumar Barry, Joel Badger go on trial in fatal shooting of Bronx elementary school teacher Kimberly Midgette

A reputed Nassau street gang leader and his alleged teenage hitman killed a Bronx elementary school teacher in 2023, prosecutors said Thursday during opening arguments of the murder trial against the two men, in a case of mistaken identity because the victim wore blonde dreadlocks similar to those of a rival gang.

Oumar Barry, 30, believed to be the highest-ranking local Blood Hound Brims member, and Joel Badger, 21, who was 16 when authorities say he sprayed four bullets into the car of Kimberly Midgette in Hempstead, are on trial for murder, assault and weapons charges.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor Brian Rodriguez said Barry sought payback after he was shot at the night before and Badger, a “pup” in gang parlance, hoped the killing would elevate his status in the gang hierarchy.

“I respect violence more than anything,” Rodriguez quoted a text that Barry sent to a Suffolk County gang leader. “More than the life of an innocent woman,” the prosecutor added.

Midgette was at the wrong place at the wrong time, the prosecutor said.

“Kimberly was a mother, daughter, a sister and a friend,” Rodriguez said. “She was not a gang member, and she was not the target of the senseless violence perpetrated by these defendants, but she is dead nonetheless.”

On the night of the killing, she had been chatting with a girlfriend past midnight until the two got on the road to drop Midgette's 10-year-old daughter off with her ex for his weekend visitation, according to Rodriguez.

Before the killing, Barry texted his gang compatriot asking for help, the prosecutor said.

“Need soldiers,” he wrote, according to Rodriguez.

His answer was 16-year-old Badger, who the prosecutor said was eager to prove his worth to the street gang.

The two had never met, Rodriguez said, before they prepared for the revenge shooting.

The two stole a black Honda that a food delivery driver had left idling on the curb while he picked up an order from McDonald’s, the prosecutor said, and exchanged numbers nearby as they readied for the shooting.

Badger sat in the front passenger seat of the stolen Honda — it's unclear who was driving — and Barry escorted the car in a red Honda, according to court testimony.

Midgette passed the cars as she pulled up to the Polk Avenue home of her daughter’s father in her Toyota Corolla at 1:30 a.m.

Four shots rang out — one hit Midgette in the head, another hit her friend in the arm and the two others lodged in her car's headrest and in a parked car.

The two Hondas then sped off. Badger and Barry ditched the stolen black Honda in Coram, where detectives located it four months later, Rodriguez said, with two shell casings still in the front seat.

The prosecutor said the evidence in the case is “overwhelming.”

The prosecutor referenced cellphone tower data, text messages, private app messages, surveillance and police body camera footage, license plate reader photos, ballistics testing and other evidence he said pointed at Barry and Badger as the culprits.

Badger is currently serving 22 years in state prison for a Suffolk County conviction for robbery and conspiracy to commit the Midgette murder.

Despite the mountain of evidence, defense attorney George Michel cautioned the jury to keep an open mind and question everything they hear and see.

“The majority of it is overdone noise,” he said in his opening statement. “Oumar Barry did not order anyone to shoot anyone and he certainly didn’t intend anyone to shoot anyone else.”

Badger’s lawyer, Gregory Zak, told the jury to pay close attention to the motivation of a cooperating witness, Keysean Meade, who prosecutors said drove one of the Hondas and witnessed the killing.

Meade was 16 when he was implicated in the crime.

“What would a 16-year-old kid do to get out of a life sentence?” Zak asked the jury. “He has a lifetime of reasons to lie for self-preservation."

The trial continues Friday.