Freeport man handed 23-year sentence for fatal shooting of aspiring rapper

A Freeport man was sentenced Monday to 23 years in prison for the 2021 robbery and fatal shooting of an aspiring rapper from Long Beach, according to the Nassau County District Attorney's Office. 

Eric Baldwin, 27, pleaded guilty in September to second-degree murder and robbery for the killing two years before of James Diamond, 28, of Long Beach, prosecutors said in a news release. Baldwin's accomplice, Corey Grier, 29, also of Freeport, pleaded guilty in August to first-degree robbery and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, prosecutors said. Grier was sentenced last month to 20 years in prison, followed by five years supervised release. according to the release.

Two other men have been charged in connection with the robbery and killing and are awaiting trial. 

Grier and Diamond were part of the same aspiring rap group and had been recording together, police said at the time.

Diamond went to his lawyer’s office to pick up a check for $55,000 that he'd been awarded in a legal settlement, prosecutors said.

He later went to pick up Grier and another friend before heading to a check cashing business. Once there, Diamond cashed the check, prosecutors said. Grier told him to deposit the cash in a nearby bank on South Bay Avenue.

On Sept 10, Grier called Baldwin and told him to meet them near the bank. Baldwin arrived with two other men, Akeem Chambers and Todd Brant, prosecutors said. Baldwin, Chambers and Brant allegedly ordered Diamond and the friend out of his vehicle at gunpoint.

While struggling over the cash, prosecutors said, Baldwin shot Diamond once in the stomach and fled with the money. Diamond was pronounced dead at Mt. Sinai South Nassau Communities Hospital.

Baldwin and Grier helped lure "Diamond to his death, when they convinced the young man to meet them in Freeport,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement. “ … Jimmy Diamond was a popular and talented young man who was taken too early.”

 Brant is awaiting trial on murder and robbery charges in Nassau County related to Diamond's death.

Chambers is charged in the U.S. Eastern District Court of New York with racketeering, conspiracy, felony murder in the commission of a robbery in Diamond's death. He was also charged in the death of Thiasia Williams, 28, of Amityville, who prosecutors described as an innocent bystander who was shot outside a Hempstead party that targeted rival gang members. He is awaiting trial in federal court with five other defendants on separate additional charges.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.