Tyler Flach's attorney defended him 'with vigor and skill,' prosecutors say in rejecting effort to set aside conviction

Nassau prosecutors said Tyler Flach’s trial attorney defended him with “vigor and skill” in court papers filed Monday, rebutting a motion by the Lido Beach man’s new lawyers seeking to have his second-degree murder conviction set aside because of ineffective counsel and prosecutorial misconduct. 

Flach, 22, was convicted on Nov. 1 of second-degree murder and other charges in the fatal stabbing of Khaseen Morris, 16, during a 2019 after-school brawl outside an Oceanside strip mall. His Dec. 14 sentencing was postponed after his new defense team filed a motion on Jan. 30 asking acting Supreme Court Justice Howard Sturim to dismiss the second-degree murder conviction or reduce it to manslaughter. 

“It is clear that defense counsel provided a vigorous, effective defense on behalf of the defendant,” Assistant District Attorney Ania Pulaski said in a memorandum of law opposing Flach’s motion due to ineffective counsel by trial attorney Edward Sapone. “Trial counsel had a coherent strategy in aggressively defending this case as an accidental stabbing that occurred during a gang fight.” 

Sapone, according to Pulaski, pursued the only viable strategy available to Flach with “vigor and skill.” 

Sturim agreed to postpone Flach’s sentencing after the defendant replaced Sapone with the Rosenberg Law Firm of Brooklyn to represent him during sentencing and appeals. Sturim has given the defense team until Tuesday to respond to the government’s filing and will rule on the request to vacate the conviction on Feb. 28. If Sturim rejects the motion, he could sentence Flach to prison on that day. 

Rosenberg and his colleague Samantha Chorny, who also represents Flach, did not respond to a request for comment. Brendan Brosh, a spokesman for Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, directed a request for comment to the papers filed by Pulaski on Monday. 

“Every decision our legal team made was the product of careful deliberation designed to protect and help Tyler,” Sapone said. “We appreciate the district attorney’s position that Tyler was defended vigorously and skillfully. We continue to wish Tyler and his family well.” 

Prosecutors Daryl Levy and Pulaski contended during Flach’s trial that the defendant had intentionally stabbed Morris multiple times during a brawl sparked by the jealous ex-boyfriend of a girl the teen had befriended after moving from Freeport to Oceanside. 

Sapone told the jury that the fatal stabbing was a tragic accident caused by reckless behavior — Flach was holding a knife while throwing a flurry of punches at Morris before one punch “went awry,” piercing the teen’s heart. It was an important distinction, Sapone told the jury, because it related to Flach’s intent during the Sept. 16, 2019, brawl. 

In a motion filed on Jan. 30, attorney Jonathan Rosenberg argued that the murder verdict should be set aside or reduced to manslaughter because of ineffective counsel, in part because Sapone should have called witnesses — including Flach — to testify about whether he intended to fatally stab Morris.

Flach’s decision not to take the witness stand, Pulaski countered in Monday’s filing, was fully explored by the court — and was made by the defendant himself. The prosecutor also said Sapone pursued his single-stab theory with several government witnesses, including the medical examiner and the EMTs who treated Morris at the scene. 

Rosenberg’s motion also claimed that Flach was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct because the government had claimed that Morris had been stabbed more than once, but Pulaski noted in her papers that there were some eyewitnesses who testified that Flach had jabbed the knife multiple times. 

Rosenberg’s motion also said that prosecutors failed to request — and turn over to the defense — radio recordings made by the ambulance workers who treated Morris after he was stabbed. Those recordings were destroyed three years before Flach went to trial, according to the defense papers. 

Pulaski said there were three sets of radio transmissions. Two were provided to the defense. The third, between the ambulance and a hospital, were never obtained by prosecutors, she said. 

Testimony in the trial showed the brawl was sparked by friction with the jealous ex-boyfriend of a girl whom Morris walked home from a party. That teenager was among Flach’s group of friends from Long Beach who squared off with Morris and a group of his friends from Freeport.

Police also arrested seven of Flach's friends on assault charges in the aftermath of the fight, which also left Morris' friend, Aaron Singh, then 17, with a broken arm.