Yaphank man found guilty of 2 murders

A Yaphank man was found guilty Friday of murdering two men. Reginald Ross was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder in the 2010 deaths of 51-year-old Raymond Hirt and 39-year-old John Williams.

News 12 Staff

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Mar 14, 2015, 6:18 AM

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Updated 3,570 days ago

A Yaphank man was found guilty Friday of murdering two men.

Reginald Ross was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder in the 2010 deaths of 51-year-old Raymond Hirt and 39-year-old John Williams.

Prosecutors said Ross, 33, killed Williams in front of his Holbrook home as part of a plot to lure the victim's friend to the funeral and then kill him over a disputed drug deal.

"The hardest thing for us, besides looking at the pictures of my son lying on the ground bleeding from his head ... the fact that he had no idea why he was being shot at," says Williams' father.

After the verdict was read, the Williams family went to John's grave to deliver the news and pay their respects.

Ross was also convicted in the unrelated murder of Hirt, a flagman from Mastic Beach, after the two got into an argument over traffic at a roadwork site.

Ross had an accomplice in Williams' murder, who has already pleaded guilty and testified against Ross. He is serving his sentence upstate.