An upstate New York town official who shot and wounded a lost DoorDash delivery driver was convicted Thursday of assault and firearms charges, authorities said.
John Reilly III, the highway superintendent in Chester — a town nearly 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Manhattan — now faces up to 25 years behind bars on the top charge. Sentencing is scheduled for May.
Reilly had maintained he was acting in self-defense to protect his family and home when he shot at Alpha Barry's car as the delivery driver was leaving Reilly's property on May 2, 2025. But Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler said in a statement after the verdict that he showed a "depraved indifference to human life."
Video from Reilly’s Ring doorbell camera published by news outlets showed the driver walking up to Reilly’s front door with a plastic bag and ringing the doorbell.
Another clip showed the driver back inside his car as Reilly exited his house with a handgun and fired a shot into his lawn, saying, “Go.” Then, as the driver made a three-point turn in the driveway, the footage appeared to show Reilly shoot at the car and again as it drove away.
One of the shots hit Barry in the back, according to authorities. The driver later underwent emergency surgery and had over 2 feet (.6 meters) of his small bowels removed, prosecutors said.
Reilly’s lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, has said that on the night of the shooting, Reilly’s daughter woke him up after the driver rang the doorbell. Reilly told Barry he didn’t order any food, but the driver insisted on coming into the house to charge his phone, leading Reilly to worry about a home invasion, Kenniff previously told The Associated Press. Kenniff said Thursday he is “confident that we will have a viable appeal."
On the stand, Barry testified that he did not ask to enter Reilly's home, only to have his phone charged, according to News12 Westchester.
Reilly’s defense lawyer said his client had struggled to communicate with Barry, then a recent immigrant from Guinea, the outlet said.
Authorities later found a number of guns at Reilly's home that he was not licensed to own, according to prosecutors.
Jurors had started their deliberations on Tuesday. Reilly was acquitted of one assault charge but convicted of a different assault charge that centered on whether he acted recklessly. He had also been charged with attempted murder, but the jury did not have to consider that charge after finding him guilty on the second assault charge.
Shootings of people who mistakenly went to the wrong house have tested the limits of stand your ground laws in recent years.
In 2023, a 66-year-old man in rural upstate New York fatally shot a 20-year-old woman when the vehicle she was riding in mistakenly turned into his driveway. He said he believed his home was under siege and fired a warning shot. After deliberating for less than an hour, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder.
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