Michael Anderson shot in face over perceived disrespect, witness says

The gunshot to the face that killed a West Babylon man next to a strip club six years ago came out of nowhere, the woman who saw it happen testified Thursday.

D’Metriotis Van De Mark, 28, told jurors of her harrowing relationship with Marcus Lewis, 34, formerly of Wyandanch, before and after the Sept. 25, 2010, killing of Michael “Mizzy” Anderson, 30.

Although she was composed in Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr.’s courtroom, the experience was so nerve-wracking that she twice had to bolt off the witness stand to retch in a nearby bathroom.

During questioning by Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock, Van De Mark said she saw nothing amiss when Lewis and Anderson chatted briefly at Stone Hedge, a now-defunct strip club in West Babylon.

But when Anderson walked to a gas station next door to get some cigars, Van De Mark said Lewis told her to get in his car and they waited for him in the gas station parking lot.

When Anderson came out, she said Lewis pretended to want his phone number. He called to him, “Yo, Mizzy, come over here and put your math in my phone,” according to Van De Mark.

“Mizzy put his face in the car, and Marcus shot him,” Van De Mark said.

Lewis then sped off, she said.

“Why the [expletive] did you kill him?” the witness said she asked him. She said he replied that people “have to respect” him.

Moments later, a police car pulled them over on the Southern State Parkway for speeding, she said. Lewis told the officer that Van De Mark had low blood sugar, so the officer escorted them to a nearby hospital. Instead of going in, she said they fled to her mother’s home in New Jersey and then to North Carolina.

Van De Mark said Lewis was in trouble soon after they met when he was driving a cab she had called for. Months into their relationship, she said he had demanded that she lose weight and made her dance at strip clubs under names such as Empress and Star. He kept all her earnings, she said, but it wasn’t enough.

“So he bought a laptop and said I’d have to up my game,” she said. That meant working as a prostitute and turning over all she earned from the met she met online, she said.

“He was my pimp and I was his prostitute,” she said. “He was a person that wanted to pose as my boyfriend, but he would have other girls and force me to have sex with all of them. For me, it wasn’t a regular relationship.”

After they left Long Island, Van De Mark said Lewis beat her, pistol-whipped her and shaved her head.

Defense attorney Noel Munier of Mineola moved for a mistrial, arguing that the testimony had veered into uncharged crimes and was improper.

Toomey ruled the testimony was necessary to explain why Van De Mark didn’t call police or come forward until detectives found her in 2014. After she told her story, Lewis was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

During cross-examination, Munier focused on slight wording inconsistencies in statements she’s given about the case and seemed skeptical about what happened after the shooting.

“So if I understand your testimony correctly, after this incident you brought a stone-cold killer to your mother’s house?” Munier asked.

“It wasn’t my choice,” Van De Mark replied.

Munier did not challenge her account of the shooting itself.