Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Nicholas D’Agostino, 21, of Arizona, pleaded guilty to Murder in the Second Degree, and other related charges, for fatally shooting Yusef Staine, 20, of Wyandanch, on February 16, 2022, while they were on a Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train.
“This defendant took the life of his own friend, Yusef Staine, who was just 20 years old at the time of the murder,” said District Attorney Tierney. “While we were able to secure this substantial sentence of incarceration, there is no legal consequence that can repair the harm done to Mr. Staine or his loved ones.”
According to court documents and the defendant’s admissions during his guilty plea allocution, D’Agostino arrived to Long Island on February 13, 2022, after traveling from Arizona to meet the victim, Yusef Staine. On February 15, 2022, the pair, along with two other friends, took an LIRR train from Wyandanch to New York City. In the early morning hours of February 16, 2022, the victim and D’Agostino boarded an LIRR train back to Suffolk County. After missing their stop in Wyandanch, the pair then boarded a westbound train in Ronkonkoma.
Upon boarding that westbound train, D’Agostino pulled a gun from his jacket pocket and shot the victim in the back of the head while walking behind him. When Staine fell to the ground, D’Agostino then fired a second shot into Staine’s torso and then got off the train. D’Agostino ordered a Lyft which picked him up less than a mile from the Ronkonkoma train station and brought him to Yonkers. D’Agostino ultimately boarded a Greyhound bus destined for Arizona.
An extensive investigation by members of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad led to D’Agostino’s ultimate apprehension and arrest in Yonkers on May 18, 2023.
On January 29, 2025, D’Agostino pleaded guilty to one count of Murder in the Second Degree, a Class A felony, and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, Class C felonies.
D’Agostino is due back in court on March 10, 2025, and is expected to be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He is being represented by Keith O’Halloran, Esq. and Tara Laterza, Esq.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Elena Tomaro and Michelle Chiuchiolo of the Homicide Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Detective Donald Truesdell of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad and Detective Ryan Miller of the Metropolitan Transit Authority Police Department.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.