US News

MURDER CONVICTION IN PIZZA SLAY

A Brooklyn jury yesterday found a man guilty of second-degree murder for his role in killing a pizza delivery boy.

Samson Nylander – one of three people charged in the attack – shook his head when the jury foreman said, “Guilty,” in a shaky voice in Brooklyn Supreme Court. One juror cried as all 12 were polled.

Nylander’s mother cried out to him as he was led from the courtroom, “Samson, I love you. I love you. It’s OK, my love. God is good all the time. The truth will come out. That’s all I can say to you.

“The truth will speak. The truth will come out. I have God. That’s all I have.”

The mother sat on a courtroom bench for a short while, with her head bowed. She told the two young women flanking her, “I can’t get up.”

Then, she slowly rose and left the courtroom.

When she and her two companions entered the courthouse hallway, one of the young women broke down, saying, “No, no! It’s not OK!”

Nylander, 24, was convicted quickly, although he was believed by all attorneys involved to be the least culpable of three suspects on trial for murder in connection with last year’s shooting death of 17-year-old Ivan Martinez.

Nylander had admitted to driving the car that brought his girlfriend and another couple to and from the robbery scene in East New York.

But he said he had no idea the girls, both then 17, planned to rob anyone when they got out of the vehicle.

The jury didn’t buy his claim. Judge Plummer Lott advised jurors not to speak about the case until the verdicts of two other suspects come in.

Two other juries today will resume deliberating the fates of Nylander’s girlfriend, Mavis Brown, now 19, and the alleged shooter, Mark Rushion, 25.