KINGSTON – Two brothers were sentenced on Tuesday in Ulster County Court to 25 years to life in prison in connection with the murder of a Plattekill man whose body was found at the end of his driveway on January 2, 2023.
Visiting Sullivan County Court Judge Stephan Schick sentenced Junando Dawkins, 30, of Newburgh, and his brother, 34-year-old Juwaugh Dawkins, both of whom had been convicted following an 11-day jury trial in April for murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
State Police at Highland investigated the death of Daniel Spotards, a 41-year-old father of two.
A local sanitation worker discovered the body and called 911.
Spotards had been shot several times at close range on January 1, 2023.
Local Plattekill residents also contributed to solving the case by calling police when they discovered discarded cell phones a short distance from the crime.
Junando Dawkins was apprehended at Fort Liberty – formerly Fort Bragg – in North Carolina, in March 2023, as he was about to deploy overseas as a sergeant in the Army.
Juwaugh Dawkins fought extradition and extradition and was eventually extradited from Florida in June 20223.
At sentencing, the victim’s partner and mother of his eight-year-old child, spoke, imploring the defendants to think of all the children, including their own, that their crime had impacted.
The victim’s mother read a victim impact statement from Spotards’ 16-year-old daughter, which described the pain of losing her father and the many important moments he would miss out in,
His mother provided a statement and displayed posters including photos of her son with his children.