A manipulative gunman who executed a man over a high-end sneaker sale, then pretended to help police and his family with the investigation, will spend the rest of his life behind bars, a Brooklyn judge ruled Thursday.
Hakeem Smith, 31, even contemplated pinning the blame on his own father as police were investigating the murder of 30-year-old Douglas Young on Feb. 6, 2020, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Hecht said yesterday before passing sentence.
“You were not just heartless, but also devious and manipulative. The detectives trusted you. They went down investigatory rabbit holes at your direction. The family believed you,” Hecht said. “Your strategy to cast blame on others reached its climax when you appallingly suggested that your own father take the blame for this crime and die in prison because he had less life to lose than you.”
A jury found Smith guilty of murder and arson last month. Hecht sentenced him Thursday to life without parole for the murder, plus another 5 to 15 years of consecutive time for the arson.
“What was all this for? A pair of sneakers. How shameful!” the judge said. “Your lies and elaborate deceptions show how little you regard other people and the social bonds that unite us. I really fear that there is no amount of time in prison that will rehabilitate you.”
Young flew from Georgia to New York to sell Smith 11 pairs of high-end sneakers, valued at a total of $31,150. The kicks included a pair of Nike Dunk SB Low What the Dunk that resells for $9,346, and a Jordan 1 Retro Fragment Friends, Family that resells for $8,900.
Young’s family told the Daily News in 2020 that he put himself through college and built up a lucrative sneaker business.
He and Smith had done business before and had planned to return to Georgia after the deal was done, Assistant D.A. Steven Bravo said in a sentencing letter to the judge.
Young parked his rental car opposite a building on Court St. in Red Hook, and waited for Smith. The judge pointed out that Smith scoped out the location in advance.
“You arranged to meet Douglas after dark, although he wanted to meet you earlier, and was trying to meet you all day,” Hecht said.
Young showed Smith the sneakers, and Smith shot him three times in the back of the head, as the unwitting victim sat in his car’s passenger seat, the trial established.
“All three bullets were independently fatal,” Bravo wrote.
Smith didn’t call 911. Instead, he moved in and out of the car, then walked away with bags full of the sneakers.
The next day, he pretended to help Young’s family search for him, lying to them about meeting him near Barclays Center and watching him drive away to meet someone else. He claimed they never made the sale.
“He even offered to help file a missing-person report,” Bravo wrote.
On Feb. 8, Smith went back to the crime scene, where the rental car was still parked, with Young’s body still inside. He lit the car ablaze.
He then gave his fake account of seeing Young drive off to detectives, offering names of possible suspects, and giving a detective a fake screenshot showing Young called him the afternoon of the murder.
Months later, when police searched his phone, they found writings describing what should happen if his case was “not winnable,” along with a strategy where his father would “confess to the crime,” Bravo wrote.
At trial, Smith came up with an entirely different strategy — he admitted to his lies, but said Young pulled a gun on him and attacked him with a box-cutter, and he shot Young in self defense. The physical evidence didn’t back up his newly concocted story, and the jury didn’t buy it.
“Today’s sentence holds this defendant accountable for taking the life of Douglas Young, an innocent man who was senselessly and deliberately killed by someone he knew and trusted,” Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez said Thursday. “The defendant then took elaborate steps to cover up his heinous crime. Young’s family, friends, and community are heartbroken by his loss, and my thoughts are with them today.”
Smith had no attorneys at his sentencing. He made a statement claiming his constitutional rights were violated and that he didn’t get due process or a speedy trial.
The judge heard statements from two of Young’s cousins as the victim’s father sat in the courtroom to watch the proceedings.
“It is difficult to put into words what the loss of Douglas has done to me,” his cousin, Latrice McTeer, told the judge Thursday. “I’ve been by his side since the day he was born. He’s my best friend. Being forced to live with his absence is a struggle for me every day.”
She added, “Nothing that happens in this courtroom today can undo what happened to Douglas or bring him back, but I want the court to understand the consequences of what was done to Douglas did not end on the day Douglas was murdered.”
In a written statement, another cousin, Cashawn Davis, described Young as a “positive role model for the younger generation of our family.”
“Douglas would spend time with my son and his cousin at his sneaker store in Atlanta,” Davis said. “He used that opportunity to teach them.”