Tyler Flach sentenced to maximum of 25 years to life for murder of Khaseen Morris in 2019

A Nassau judge on Tuesday sentenced Lido Beach resident Tyler Flach to the maximum penalty of 25 years to life in prison for the fatal stabbing of Khaseen Morris, three months after a jury found Flach intended to kill the Oceanside High School senior when he stabbed him in the heart.

Flach, 22, appearing in front of Nassau Supreme Court Justice Howard Sturim during an emotional hearing, insisted he didn't intend to kill anyone when he and his friends from Long Beach fought with Morris, 16, and his friends outside an Oceanside strip mall on Sept. 16, 2019.

“I hate that day,” Flach told members of the Morris family who attended Tuesday’s sentencing in Mineola. “I hate myself for accidentally causing the death of your son." 

Flach, handcuffed and wearing a blue tie and white shirt, addressed the court before sentencing.

“There are no words I can say … to explain what happened,” Flach said, glancing back at the Morris family. “I would never try to kill anybody.”

Sturim told the defendant that his actions had devastated both his family and the family of the victim.

“You brought a knife to a fistfight,” the judge said. “You are about to learn a very harsh lesson by spending a long time in prison.” 

Sturim told Flach he will spend much of his life behind bars all because he wanted to act like a tough guy. 

“The way I see it, you were trying to impress everyone with your toughness,” Sturim told Flach. 

“We were kids!” Flach interrupted. “We were kids!”

“So was he,” someone said from the gallery, referring to Morris, who was killed just days before he would have turned 17.

Keyanna Morris, who has served as a spokeswoman for the family since her younger brother was killed, sobbed and wiped away tears as she stood with her sister, Kedeemah, in court to give a victim impact statement before sentencing.

“Be strong, baby,” someone said from the gallery. 

Keyanna Morris seemed to regain her strength after her mother, Annmarie Morris, joined her daughters at the podium. Then she blasted Flach for stealing her “baby brother” — whom she described as loving, carefree and destined for great things in life — from the family. 

Flach’s eleventh-hour attempts to express remorse, Keyanna Morris said, were hollow. The defendant — who did not look at Keyanna Morris or her family as she spoke to the court — smirked and waved to family and friends throughout the case, she said.

“I have been here through the whole trial,'' Keyanna Morris told Sturim while clutching a photo of her brother. “Every day when he would enter this courtroom with that smirk on his face, his sense of entitlement, like he won a contest. Please hold this defendant accountable to the fullest extent so that he will never be able to take the life of another innocent person.” 

The family of Khaseen Morris cheered after Sturim meted out his sentence.

Flach was convicted on Nov. 1 of second-degree murder, first-degree gang assault and misdemeanor assault and weapon charges. The verdict came on the sixth day of jury deliberations after about a week of testimony and 20 witnesses. Flach did not testify at the trial.

Nassau County prosecutors Daryl Levy and Ania Pulaski called witnesses who testified at trial that the brawl was initiated by the jealous ex-boyfriend of a girl whom Morris had walked home from a party shortly after the victim moved from Freeport to Oceanside.

Flach was scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 14, but that was delayed after he replaced his trial attorney, Edward Sapone, with the Rosenberg Law Firm of Brooklyn shortly before that to represent him during sentencing and appeals. The new defense team filed a motion seeking to have the second-degree conviction dismissed or reduced to manslaughter, which would have brought a less severe sentence. 

Sturim rejected the motion on Tuesday with no discussion.

The judge said Flach will be sent to begin serving his sentence at New York State’s Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon. He had been held without bail since his arrest in September 2019.

Nassau District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly on Tuesday called Morris' death "an incredibly senseless murder."

“Khaseen Morris was intelligent, friendly and had a smile that could light up a room,” Donnelly said. “The young man was only 16 years of age and had recently transferred to a new high school, where he was making friends. The defendant, angry that Morris had walked a girl home, organized a group and went to a local strip mall with the intention of attacking Morris. Tyler Flach stabbed Morris in the chest and took the young man’s life."

Flach’s parents were present for the sentencing but declined to talk to reporters after the proceedings.

Flach attorney Kevin Dunshee said the defense team would appeal the conviction. The Rosenberg Law Firm argued in court papers that Sapone provided ineffective counsel because he did not call witnesses — including Flach — to testify about the defendant’s intentions the day Morris died. 

The defense also has said that prosecutors tainted the jury by claiming that Flach stabbed Morris multiple times. Witnesses testified that some of the lacerations on Morris’ body were the result of medical intervention.

“He knows he made a mistake, but that he wasn’t trying to impress anyone and he certainly wasn’t trying to kill anyone,” Dunshee said of Flach.

Outside the court, members of the Morris family said Sturim had served justice. 

But that won’t bring back a young man they described as full of life and love, they said.

"He has shown no remorse," Keyanna Morris said. "He wanted to kill my brother and he succeeded."