Albany County District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon announced today that the Monticello man who was found guilty of murder for the Oct. 20, 2024, shooting death of Mohammed Poquee inside the Ida Yarborough Apartments will be spending the next three decades in prison.
The Honorable Thomas Marcelle sentenced Jonte Wunner to 25 years to life in state prison for Murder in the Second Degree and 10 years for Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree on Thursday, to run consecutively. Marcelle also sentenced Wunner, 26, to three-and-a-half to seven years for Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree, to run concurrently.
“This is one of those cases where I think the judge was right to lock up the guy and throw away the key,” DA Kindlon said. “Wunner showed he had little regard for human life, and Albany County is a lot safer today with this guy behind bars.”
A jury of eight women and four men deliberated for four hours on May 8 after a two-and-a-half-day trial before returning a guilty verdict. 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 captured Wunner sitting in a vestibule corridor alongside a friend as an impromptu party broke out. Poquee and Wunner start arguing as a toddler crawled behind the two men, and that’s when Wunner pulled out a handgun and fired five shots at Poquee, two striking the man.
Carty on Thursday appealed to Marcelle to make the sentences run consecutively, as Wunner possessed the gun before his deadly actions, which Carty described as callous, reckless, and showed a complete disregard for human life. Others, he added, could’ve been shot, including the child.
“This defendant has shown no remorse for his actions and has not taken any responsibility for the life he took,” Carty said. “And even though this sentence will not bring back the victim or make the victim's family whole, the defendant deserves the maximum sentence prescribed by law."
Poquee’s fiancée Tyesha Townsend spoke at sentencing, describing Poquee as a man who had turned his life around and was always willing to help a friend. Although she felt pity for Wunner, she couldn’t understand his actions.
“This didn’t need to go down the way it did,” she said.
Before delivering the sentence, Marcelle asked Wunner if he would like to speak. Wunner declined. Marcelle said he would still like to know why Wunner killed Poquee.
“It’s still a mystery …to know exactly what that confrontation was about, but the resolution of that confrontation is met with deadly violence,” he said. “And your actions deprived this world of an individual who wanted to live, who had love in his life, who had hopes and dreams, and it’s all gone.”
