Kane Moore, of Hempstead, gets 25-year prison term for fatally shooting Maurice Sinclair Thomas in 2024

A Hempstead man convicted of gunning down a man following a dispute during a game of Uno in the township in 2024 was sentenced to 25 years behind bars on Friday in Nassau County Court.

Kane Moore, 32, admitted to killing Maurice Sinclair Thomas in January, confessing to shooting him once with a semi-automatic handgun around 1 a.m. in a parking lot behind 134 Yale St. in Hempstead on Sept. 21, 2024.

Moore, who his lawyer said had just gotten off of work from his job at a trucking company, was relaxing with friends and acquaintances when an argument over the card game escalated.

“It was a situation complicated by alcohol,” defense attorney Mindy Plotkin said.

Thomas was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital where he died about 40 minutes later, authorities said. Originally from Georgia, Thomas left behind three daughters and a son, according to his obituary​​​​​​.

Moore pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.

“He expressed in court over and over that he never intended this outcome,” Plotkin said. “This just got out of hand.”

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly called it “a senseless act of violence and anger.”

Moore fled Long Island after the shooting, heading to Detroit, where he was eventually captured by the local police and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and returned to Nassau County on Oct. 31, 2024.

The fatal shooting was the first of a series of gun violence incidents that sent the Hempstead community reeling.

Residents held a “Day of Peace” vigil in November 2024 after two more non-fatal shootings followed. A violence interruption group called Should Never Use Guns, or SNUG, an offshoot of the Garden City-based Family & Children’s Association, spread information about programs geared toward peaceful resolutions to neighborhood disputes.

“The safety of our communities depends on keeping guns off our streets and out of the hands of violent individuals like Moore,” Donnelly said in a statement. “We continue to crack down on illegal guns with our law enforcement partners and hold dangerous criminals accountable with significant sentences like this one.”