Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that two Suffolk County men were convicted yesterday on murder and weapons possessions charges for the January 2020 shooting death of 27-year-old Justin Gottlieb.
Douglas Coudrey, 26, from Eastport, and Kenneth Regan, 25, from Centereach, were convicted by a jury of Murder in the Second Degree (an A-I felony) and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (a C violent felony). The defendants are due back for sentencing on March 22, 2024, and face a potential maximum of 40 years to life in prison.
The trial, before Judge Robert Schwartz, began on January 23, 2024. The jury deliberated for approximately three hours.
“Justin Gottlieb was a young father and electrical engineer who was senselessly murdered by Douglas Coudrey and Kenneth Regan after an encounter on his drive home from work,” said DA Donnelly. “These defendants left a trail of destruction in their wake and are presently charged with another shooting in New Jersey merely four days after Justin’s murder. I thank the jury for their service in this case and we extend our condolences to Justin’s many family members and friends as they continue to mourn his loss.”
DA Donnelly said that on the evening of January 14, 2020, Justin Gottlieb, a 27-year-old electrical engineer at a lighting company in Jericho, was driving home from work to Plainview. As Gottlieb drove in his red Ford Explorer, he was followed by a white Ford Fusion operated by Coudrey and Regan.
At approximately 5:32 p.m. Gottlieb pulled up in front of his parents’ home in Plainview, which was next door to his own home. Shortly thereafter, the Ford Fusion pulled up next to Gottlieb’s car and two shots were fired at the victim, striking him in the leg and chest area.
Gottlieb ran into his parents’ home where, fighting for his life, he told his family that the perpetrators were two kids in a white Ford Fusion. The victim was pronounced dead a short time later at Plainview Hospital. The victim was engaged and had an infant daughter with his fiancé.
On January 18, 2020, the defendants allegedly shot another motorist on Interstate 80 in Lodi, New Jersey. One occupant of the vehicle was killed while another was wounded. That case is being handled by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.
The .9mm shell casings from the New Jersey case and the Nassau County case were determined to have been fired from the same gun.
The defendants were arrested on January 22, 2020, in Suffolk County by members of the Suffolk County Police Department and the New Jersey State Police.
The defendants were arrested and charged with the Nassau murder on February 6, 2020, by members of the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad.
The NCDA thanks the Nassau County Police Department, the Suffolk County Police Department, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the New Jersey State Police and the Suffolk County Department of Social Services for their assistance in this investigation.
Senior Litigation Counsel Ania Pulaski of the Homicide Bureau is prosecuting this case. Coudrey is represented by Samantha Chorney, Esq. Regan is represented by Steven Barnwell, Esq.