A Roosevelt man was convicted by a jury of murder and other charges for severely beating a man outside of a Hempstead restaurant in 2022 who died from his injuries a year later.
On April 22, 2022, at approximately 11 p.m., Dennis “Midnight” Ray and co-defendant Tyrell Guthrie, during the course of a robbery, brutally beat Jose Osma in the rear of a Chuck E. Cheese, located at 162 Fulton Avenue in Hempstead.
The 59-year-old victim was discovered by a passerby at approximately 6:30 a.m. the following morning. Osma, who lived in Copiague, had no identification or personal property on him, and was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state with numerous skull and orbital fractures.
Osma’s family filed a missing person’s report in Suffolk County, and he was eventually discovered on April 24, 2022, at NYU Langone Hospital – Long Island, where he was listed as a “John Doe.”
Guthrie was arrested near the scene by members of the Nassau County Police Department with the victim’s blood on his clothing. Guthrie was also holding a jacket stained with the victim’s blood which Ray was wearing on the night of the attack. Guthrie pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in the First Degree (a Class B violent felony) on November 9, 2023. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison on January 29, 2024.
Ray was arrested on May 7, 2022, by members of the NCPD.
The trial began on March 23, 2026, and the jury deliberated for four-and-a-half hours before delivering their verdict. Ray, 64, was convicted after a jury trial on April 7, 2026, of Murder in the Second Degree (a Class A-I felony); Assault in the First Degree and Robbery in the First Degree (both Class B violent felonies); and Robbery in the Second Degree (a Class C violent felony).
“Jose Osma was beaten to within an inch of his life during a robbery in 2022 and what followed was an endless cycle of brain surgeries, paralysis, rehab and hospitalizations until Jose sadly succumbed to his extensive injuries a year later,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “Dennis Ray showed no remorse for his violent assault, even bragging minutes after the attack about the stolen money and the heinous crime he committed to get it.”
Osma slipped in and out of a coma several times after the assault and underwent five separate brain surgeries. Ultimately, he succumbed to his injuries on April 30, 2023, approximately a year after the attack.
“For days after the attack, Jose’s family did not know where he was or what had happened to him, and for a year after that, they were heartbreakingly forced to witness his tragic decline,” Donnelly said. “I hope that this conviction brings them a measure of justice, and I thank the jury for their decision to convict this defendant.”
Ray is due back in court on May 12, 2026, for sentencing and faces up to 25 years to life in prison.