Three defendants in OHS student's stabbing plead guilty

Three of the seven Long Beach defendants in the trial over the 2019 stabbing of Oceanside High School student Khaseen Morris pleaded guilty to a felony charge of second-degree gang assault and a misdemeanor assault charge on Monday.

Long Beach residents Sean Merritt, Marquis Stephens Jr. and Javonte Neals, each 20, made their pleas at the Nassau County Court in Mineola. The three will be sentenced on April 11 by Nassau Supervising Judge Teresa Corrigan. Corrigan said that Stephens will be sentenced to a year in jail and Marquis and Neals will receive 60 days and five years’ probation because of their plea deals.

All three will be granted youthful offender status, which seals the youth offender record and does not have to be reported on any applications for college or work as a criminal conviction. This came despite heavy opposition from the Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office.

Morris was 16 when his stabbing was broadcast over Snapchat in the parking lot of a strip mall on Brower Avenue on Sept. 16, 2019. The charges for the other four other Long Beach boys and Morris’s alleged killer, Tyler Flach, 21, from Lido Beach.