Long Beach man convicted in 2010 shooting death of neighbor

A Long Beach man arrested last year for gunning down his neighbor on E. Hudson St. following a heated argument was convicted of manslaughter on Tuesday and faces up to 25 years in prison.

After four days of deliberations, a jury found Casey Fitzgerald, 21, guilty of second-degree manslaughter in Nassau County Court, but acquitted him of the murder charge stemming from the shooting death of 48-year-old Ernest Cummings, Jr. Fitzgerald was also convicted of two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

According to District Attorney Kathleen Rice, at approximately 3:30 p.m. on March 22 last year, Fitzgerald and Cummings got into an argument in front of Fitzgerald’s East Hudson Street home. Afterward, both men returned to their homes, though Cummings came out of his residence a few minutes later to find Fitzgerald waiting for him, Rice said in a statement.

Fitzgerald fired three shots from a revolver, hitting Cummings once in the face, between his left eye and nose, Rice said, and he was pronounced dead at South Nassau Communities Hospital shortly afterward.

“This tragedy never would have happened if Mr. Fitzgerald had simply stayed in his home after the argument,” Rice said. “Instead, he chose to violently escalate the confrontation with a gun, and his disregard for human life will keep him in prison for a long time.”

Last year, Detective Sgt. Richard Laursen of the Nassau County Police Department's Homicide Squad told the Herald that Fitzgerald and Cummings, both owners of pit bulls, had a “heated” encounter. “It's basically over treatment of the dogs,” Laursen said last year. “After the heated argument, our victim goes home and puts his dogs away and leaves his house. When he gets outside, Casey's waiting for him. Three shots are fired, one of which hits Cummings in the face.”

Long Beach police found Cummings lying on the ground, and less than an hour later he was pronounced dead at South Nassau Communities Hospital.

Fitzgerald had subsequently fled to Virginia. Federal marshals, however, caught and detained him in Chesterfield County on an arrest warrant and charged him with second-degree murder on April 16, and he was extradited back to Nassau County