HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (1010 WINS) – A 62-year-old man was arraigned on murder charges for allegedly beating a man outside of a Long Island Chuck E. Cheese to death in 2022, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced Monday.
Dennis Ray, aka Midnight was arraigned on a charge of murder in the second degree.
Ray pleaded not guilty and is due back in court on Jan. 11, 2024.
In July 2022, Ray was previously indicted on assault, robbery, criminal possession of a weapon. The two indictments were consolidated Monday.
Ray faces a potential maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
His co-defendant Tyrell Guthrie pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Nov. 9, and is expected to be sentenced to 18 years in prison on his next court date of Jan. 17, 2024.
According to an investigation, at approximately 11 p.m. on April 22, 2022, Guthrie and Ray brutally beat Jose Osma in the rear of a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant located at 162 Fulton Ave. in Hempstead during a robbery, DA Donnelly said.
A passerby discovered the 59-year-old victim was at approximately 7 a.m. the following morning. Osma had no identification or personal property on him, and was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state with numerous skull and orbital fractures.
Osma's family filed a missing person's report in Suffolk County and he was eventually discovered on April 24, 2022, at NYU Langone Hospital – Long Island where he had been listed as a "John Doe."
Nassau County police arrested Guthrie near the scene with the victim's blood on his clothing. Ray was arrested on May 7, 2022.
Osma slipped into and out of a coma several times after the assault and underwent five separate brain surgeries. He died from his injuries on April 30, approximately a year after the attack.
"Jose Osma was brutally beaten during a robbery in April 2022, and both of his orbital sockets were left concaved after the attack allegedly committed by these defendants," DA Donnelly said. "Thanks to a Good Samaritan, Mr. Osma was found eight hours later and taken to the hospital. Remarkably, he survived multiple brain surgeries, but sadly passed away earlier this year. The Osma family deserves justice and we will hold these defendants accountable for their alleged actions."
