Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 33 Months’ Imprisonment for Witness Retaliation

 Defendant, While Seated in the Courtroom Gallery, Used Hand Gestures To Threaten a Testifying Witness

Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Kysheeq Randolph was sentenced to 33 months’ imprisonment by United States District Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr., for making threatening hand gestures at a government witness who was testifying in a federal criminal trial.  Randolph pleaded guilty in February 2020 to a superseding criminal information charging him with witness retaliation.

Seth D. DuCharme, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced the sentence.

“It is a solemn duty of law enforcement to protect witnesses who testify at trial and attempts to brazenly intimidate or terrorize them will never be tolerated.” stated Acting United States Attorney DuCharme.  “Today the defendant learned that such flagrant disregard for the rule of law will be punished with incarceration.”  Mr. DuCharme thanked the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, New York Field Division, and the United States Marshals Service, Eastern District of New York, for their work in the case.

In October 2019, Devone Jefferys, a relative of the defendant, was on trial at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn for his role in a home invasion armed robbery.  During the trial, while a witness who had participated in the robbery was testifying, Randolph was seated in the public gallery of the courtroom in the witness’s line of sight.  Randolph began making gestures with his hand to mimic the shape of a gun and pointed it to his head and then to his chin in an upward movement to threaten the witness.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Genny Ngai.   

The Defendant:

KYSHEEQ RANDOLPH
Age:  24
Brooklyn, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 19-CR-545 (SJ)