Deion Barros shot and killed Paul LaRue over Hempstead neighborhoods dispute, prosecutor says at trial

A long-running grudge between Hempstead neighborhood groups led to a fatal 2019 drive-by revenge shooting, prosecutors said Monday during opening arguments of the murder trial against the alleged triggerman.

Deion Barros, 29, who lived in the Parkside section of Hempstead, stands accused of second-degree murder and gun charges for shooting Paul LaRue, 36, at the intersection of Fulton Avenue and Clinton Street.

Barros, who was being driven in a minivan by alleged Bloods gang associate Taiquan Cullum, climbed into the car’s backseat with a .380 handgun so he could fire into the back of LaRue’s black Mercedes just before 2 a.m. on July 28, 2019, officials said.

Cullum, who also lived in the Parkside section, and Barros “were driving around the Heights hunting” that night, according to Nassau County prosecutor Stefanie Palma, because rivals from that neighborhood had open fire on Cullum earlier in the evening at the bar D’Ambiance in Baldwin.

“People from Parkside don’t really get along with people from the Heights and people from the Heights don’t really get along with people from Parkside,” Palma said. “It’s a long-standing childhood dispute that carried into adulthood over who is tougher.”

Palma said Jermaine Grant, who lived in the Heights, shot at Cullum seven times and missed outside the bar that night.

Angered by his near-death experience, Cullum decided to seek his revenge that night, prosecutors said. He switched from the BMW that he was driving to a rented minivan, then went to pick up Barros and drove around Hempstead hoping that he would run into Grant and the two other men he had quarreled with in Baldwin, prosecutors said.

Unknown to Cullum and Barros, those men had been picked up by Nassau County police, based on a tip from a livery driver who had seen the earlier shooting, according to opening statements from the defense attorney and prosecutors.

As the night wore on, Cullum and Barros drew tired of the search and decided to call off the hunt when they saw LaRue stopped at the intersection in his Mercedes, prosecutors said. LaRue had been at D’Ambiance that night hanging out with Grant and other members of the Heights crew, but was not involved in the bar shooting.

“That’s one of them,” Palma said Cullum told Barros and gave him a .380 semiautomatic handgun then told him to get in the backseat.

LaRue was struck through his windpipe and jugular vein, the prosecutor said, and drowned on his own blood.

It wasn’t until 2023, Palma said, when Nassau County detectives zeroed in on Barros as a suspect and, she said, he agreed to sit down with Det. Russell Bastone to discuss the shooting.

“The defendant literally admited to everything,” the prosecutor said in her opening statement. “Bastone could barely finish introducing himself when the defendant blurted out, ‘I was in the van that night.’ ”

Palma said that Barros also told a cooperating witness, “I think I hit him in the head.”

Barros gave an extensive confession, Palma said, corroborating much of the physical evidence that investigators already knew about the case.

Forensic investigators found residue from a shooting inside the rental car used for the shooting, the prosecutor said. They also found a red hat in the backseat of the car that tested positive for Barros’ DNA, Palma said. Additionally, the rental car had GPS tracking place at the intersection of Fulton Avenue and Clinton Street at the time of the shooting she said.

For all the evidence mentioned in the opening statement, defense attorney Jeffrey Groder said that there were major problems with the case against Barros.

The confession, Groder said during his opening statements, was not written down.

“The evidence does not support Deion Barros' involvement in the killing of Paul LaRue,” Groder said.

“There are serious doubts as to the existence of this confession,” Groder said.

At some point, Barros didn’t know what to tell investigators, according to testimony.

“Eventually, he told detectives, just tell me what you want to hear,” Palma said, but not because he was being coerced.

The cooperating witness who said Barros confessed to him, had been arrested on gun and drug charges and agreed to testify in exchange for a reduced sentence, Groder said.

In April, Cullum was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison for his role in LaRue’s murder. Grant was convicted in 2022 of attempted murder and is currently serving 20 years in state prison. 

The trial continues on Tuesday.