Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announces a conviction. Photo: Ben Fractenberg/The City
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced that three alleged gang members have been variously sentenced for the fatal shooting of Devonte Lewis in broad daylight outside of the victim’s Midwood charter school shortly after dismissal. The two shooters in the case were sentenced to 14 years to life and 15 years to life, respectively. A third defendant was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “These defendants, who were just 15 and 16 years old at the time, laid in wait and opened fire at their target outside a school — killing him and ruining their own entire futures. We vigorously prosecute and hold responsible gang members who engage in gun violence, which is part of the reason Brooklyn is experiencing a dramatic reduction in shootings. My thoughts today are with Devonte Lewis’s heartbroken mother and loved ones.”
The District Attorney identified the defendants as Malachi Simms, 19, Quran Smith, 20, and Frantzy Alexandre, 20, all of Flatbush, Brooklyn. Smith was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Blum to 15 years to life in prison. Simms and Alexandre were sentenced by Justice Blum to 14 years to life in prison and 10 years in prison, respectively, on Tuesday, April 15. Smith and Simms pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on March 17, 2025, and Alexandre pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on the same day.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on April 29, 2021, at approximately 2:40 p.m., Simms and Smith, each armed with a firearm, fatally shot an alleged gang rival, Devonte Lewis, a.k.a. Dior, 17, as he was leaving Urban Dove Charter School, a high school, on East 21st Street near Avenue K. Alexandre accompanied the defendants to the school and was observed passing the firearm to Simms just before Simms fired the shots at Lewis. All three of the defendants belonged to the Folk No Love City gang.
Surveillance video shows the three defendants waited outside the school and hid behind the victim’s car until the moment they shot him. The video shows both defendants raising their arms to chest height to fire at the victim and continuing to fire after he falls to the ground.
Alexandre and Simms both got into the victim’s car right after the shooting and attempted to drive it away before fleeing on foot to Simms’ house together. Smith fled the scene immediately after the shooting and went directly to Simms’ house.
The victim, a first-year Urban Dove student who had recently started a maintenance job with the New York City Housing Authority, suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach and was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he died. Lewis was an alleged member of the Bloodhound Brims, who are rivals of Folk Nation and its subsets. His murder intensified the longstanding rivalry and led to a years-long war.
Police officers recovered .380 and 9mm shell casings and one live 9mm round at the scene of the shooting. A loaded .380 Taurus Spectrum Pistol fell out of defendant Smith’s pants when he was arrested on May 19, 2021 — and this gun was a microscopic match to the shell casings found at the scene.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Gillian DiPietro, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, under the supervision of VCE Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorneys Matthew Stewart and VCE First Deputy Bureau Chief Jennifer Cilia and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Alfred DeIngeniis, VCE Bureau Chief.
