A 14-year-old Mount Vernon boy was fatally shot last year because the killer’s stepfather offered the gun to the killer and urged him to “do what he had to do,” a prosecutor told a jury Wednesday at the stepfather’s murder trial.

“But for this defendant who provided this gun, Zyaire Fernandez would be alive today,” Assistant District Attorney Adrian Murphy said in his opening statement at the Westchester County Circuit Court.

Phillip Ferrell, 48, is charged with second-degree murder, second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence for his alleged actions before and after Fernandez’s March 9 killing 2023. Levister Towers apartment complex courtyard.

The killer, Tyrese Coghiel, pleaded guilty to murder and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. If he testifies truthfully, his murder conviction would be reduced to manslaughter, sparing him a possible life sentence, and he would be sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Defense attorney Angelo MacDonald told jurors the deal should give them pause because Coghiel will take the witness stand and say what he is expected to do.

“Does the business meet the true testimony?” MacDonald asked. “How will we ever know if he’s telling the truth?”

What happened the day Zyaire Fernandez was killed

On the morning of the murder, Coghiel and a relative were helping Ferrell move out of his apartment in Levister Towers in Yonkers.

Fernandez was staying with two other teenagers — one of Ferrell’s nephews. When they saw Coghiel they asked him if he was “rolling”, slang for being part of a gang. Coghiel continued and a short time later was confronted by the three again. This time one had a gun and another a knife.

Coghiel left again and soon Ferrell was yelling at his nephew. Murphy said there was a heated argument between them because Ferrell believed his nephew had stolen from him in the past.

Ferrell went upstairs to his apartment to get the keys. But by then, Murphy said, there was no longer an “imminent threat” because the nephew and Fernandez were on the other side of the building.

“The die was cast,” Murphy said, as Ferrell returned, went to the trunk, opened a lock box and revealed a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun. The prosecutor said Coghiel already knew what had to happen when Ferrell told him to “do what he had to do.”

Coghiel grabbed the gun, followed the three and fired at least five shots. But while Ferrell’s nephew was the target, Fernandez was struck in the back and soon lay dying in the yard.

ADA: The video captured what Coghiel and Ferrell did next

Murphy told jurors that video surveillance would later show Coghiel being dropped off at his girlfriend’s apartment, where he wrapped the gun in clothes and hid it under a bed. The video also allegedly showed Ferrell going there and retrieving the gun because, Murphy said, he knew that linked him to the murder.

Coghiel was arrested a few days later in Brooklyn. The gun was later found in the box next to ammunition and two improvised explosive devices in the furnace of Ferrell’s Yonkers apartment.

Ferrell initially faced only weapons, obstruction and tampering charges. But the murder charge was added in a second indictment after Coghiel detailed his stepfather’s role.

MacDonald said jurors would have to weigh a killer’s motivations to get a plea deal, and that otherwise prosecutors could not prove Ferrell’s intent to commit murder.

“If they can’t (prove his intent), he’s not guilty,” MacDonald said.

This article originally appeared on the Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Phillip Ferrell Murder Trial Opens in Mount Vernon NY Teen Murder