Cold-blooded NY commuter admits to ‘execution-style’ LIRR hit on friend — but keeps his motive secret
A cold-hearted triggerman finally copped to the “execution-style” 2022 killing of his friend on a Long Island Rail Road train in Suffolk County.
Nicholas D’Agostino, 21, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the caught-on-camera slaying of 20-year-old Yusef Staine, according to Newsday and court records.
The plea came on the eve of a murder trial set to delve into the early hours of Feb. 16, when surveillance footage on a stopped LIRR train car showed a gunman callously shoot Staine in the back of his head.
The horrific video showed the gunman fire another shot at the mortally wounded Staine, before running out the train’s open doors.
No suspect was publicly identified until May 2023, when D’Agostino was arrested in Yonkers on a murder indictment out of Suffolk County.
The indictment and DA Raymond Tierney revealed fresh details about the chilling crime, including that Staine considered his killer a friend.
D’Agostino had traveled from his home in Arizona to Wyandanch to visit Staine — and the pair spent the night before the killing with friends in New York City, Tierney said.
Both D’Agostino and Staine had ridden back to Long Island on the LIRR, but missed a stop and ended up at the Ronkonkoma station, prosecutors said.
From there, they boarded a stopped train due to head back toward Wyandanch.
The train is where D’Agostino shot Staine — a crime for which prosecutors declined to share a motive, Newsday reported.
D’Agostino, after his plea, will serve 20 years to life, his lawyer told the paper.
