New York man who killed gay dancer faces 25 years after hate-crime conviction

A New York City man who was recently convicted of a hate crime in the 2023 stabbing death of vogue dancer O’Shae Sibley is facing a prison sentence of between eight and 25 years.

Sentencing for Dmitriy Popov, who was 17 at the time of Sibley’s slaying, was tentatively scheduled for 30 June following his conviction.

Popov, 20, testified during his trial that he fatally stabbed Sibley on 29 July 2023 outside a Brooklyn gasoline station while legally defending himself. But prosecutors argued that Popov was motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ hatred – taunting, jeering and then killing Sibley when the gay man reacted to the defendant’s provocations.

A jury on Monday found Popov guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime after a three-week trial in Brooklyn state supreme court. Jurors, who deliberated a week, also found Popov guilty of second-degree menacing, aggravated harassment in the second degree and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

But it acquitted him of a more serious charge of murder as a hate crime.

The jury’s decision spared Popov a sentence of life imprisonment. But Popov’s attorney, Mark Pollard, said the manslaughter conviction meant his client was facing between eight and 25 years in prison for the manslaughter conviction.

Pollard called the verdict against Popov “probably bittersweet for both sides”.

“We’re happy he wasn’t guilty of murder but disappointed he wasn’t acquitted on the rest of the charges,” Pollard said.

Sibley had come back from a beach birthday party with friends and stopped to fill up his car with gasoline while blasting Beyoncé music when he encountered Popov.

The 28-year-old Sibley and his friends were dancing shirtless and voguing – or engaging in a form of dance popularized on the ballroom scene by queer Black and Latino people – when another group began taunting them.

Both groups argued for a couple of minutes before starting to go their separate ways, as seen in security camera video played at Popov’s trial. But Popov then approached Sibley’s group, hurled insults and recorded on his phone, and Sibley confronted him, according to witnesses.

Popov testified that he stabbed Sibley with a five-and-half-inch blade to protect himself, having become “scared that he was going to get hurt”. He denied that he aimed bigoted language at Sibley.

New York prosecutors tried Popov as an adult under a state law which allows anyone older than the age of 13 who is accused of murder to be considered an adult.

Sibley grew up in Philadelphia and performed there before moving to New York to continue pursuing his dancing career. He belonged to the Philadanco dance company and used his dancing to celebrate his LGBTQ+ identity.