Albany County District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon announced today that Junte Wunner has been found guilty of Murder in the Second Degree for the Oct. 20, 2024, shooting death of Mohammed Poquee inside the Ida Yarborough Apartments at 260 North Pearl St.

A jury of eight women and four men deliberated for roughly four hours before returning the verdict to the Honorable Thomas Marcelle Thursday. They also found Wunner guilty of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree and Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree. The jury found Wunner not guilty of an additional count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree for a separate gun Wunner had on his person at the time he was arrested eight days later.

Throughout the two-and-a-half-day trial, Assistant District Attorneys Ryan Carty and Taylor Cupp of the Major Crimes Unit called on 19 witnesses to testify, the majority compromising Albany Police Department forensics experts and detectives who worked the investigation.

The centerpiece of the prosecution’s evidence was nine minutes of security camera footage from just after midnight that captures Wunner sitting in a vestibule corridor alongside a friend as an impromptu party breaks out.

People coming and going from their apartments can be seen drinking and dancing in the corridor as Wunner deejays, playing songs from his phone through a large portable speaker. A man and his toddler son dance along with the music, and the toddler begins to crawl along the same ledge Wunner is sitting on just feet away.

Poquee is in the distance at the other end of the corridor, and a verbal dispute unfolds. Wunner, who is wearing a bright orange ski mask, stands up and pulls a handgun out of his waistband and places it in his coat pocket as Poquee approaches Wunner and his friend.

The men begin to exchange words and close in on each other. Poquee lifts his palms up in a motion that appears to be indicating he was not armed. Wunner’s friend steps in between them, and that’s when Wunner pulls out the gun and fires five shots at Poquee.

Two strike Poquee, one lodging itself in his arm and the other severing his carotid artery, ultimately killing him.

Defense attorney Salvatore Russo, who didn’t call any witnesses to the stand, said Wunner perceived a threat.

“What I do know is that my client doesn’t approach Mr. Poquee … he doesn’t even know Mr. Poquee, Mr. Poquee approaches him,” Russo said. “When he makes a motion with his hands, that is interpreted by my client as his hands moving around his waistband. My client is not a human metal detector. He doesn’t have X-ray vision … What he’s trying to do is not kill Mr. Poquee, what he is trying to do is end a confrontation.”

ADA Carty said Wunner’s actions that day were reckless and could’ve led to more loss of life. He paused the portion of the video when Wunner began shooting at Poquee, detailing just how close the toddler came to being struck.

“What did he know? He knew there was a small child in that hallway, just a few feet away,” Carty said. “Look directly at the path in the direction of this gun being pointed. This is a defendant who has no regard or value for human life … He didn’t care about firing a handgun in a small hallway of a residential building where a child was standing right in his path.”

Wunner faces the potential of life in state prison when he is sentenced on June 30.