GOSHEN – Closing arguments in the trial of alleged DoorDash shooter John Reilly III are scheduled for Monday in Orange County Court Judge Craig Brown’s courtroom.
Reilly, the Town of Chester’s Highway Superintendent, faces attempted murder charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 25 years, for shooting DoorDash driver Alpha Barry at his home on Valerie Drive in Chester last May. Reilly was also charged with two counts of assault and eight counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
The soft-spoken Barry, 24, testified through a French interpreter last week. A legal immigrant from Guinea, Barry was still learning English when he got lost on Valerie Drive after the battery on his iPhone 16 died. He arrived at Reilly’s home with a bag of food, asking whether the defendant had placed the order, before being shot as he drove away.
Barry told Senior Assistant Orange County District Attorney Nicholas Mangold that he asked Reilly to charge his phone because it was dying but never asked to enter his residence. Reilly’s attorney, Thomas Kenniff, of the law firm Raiser, Kenniff & Lonstein, contends that Barry did ask to enter the residence.
During his testimony, Reilly, 48, said that he was the most scared he had ever been in his life when Barry showed up to his home with a delivery bag and thought other people with him might be hiding in the woods to break into his home. Mangold pressed Reilly on why he didn’t call 911 if he was so alarmed. The defendant indicated that the three shots that he fired from a .45-caliber Glock pistol were warning shots.
However, according to a video of the incident, at least one of the shots seemed to be in direct line with Barry’s vehicle as he pulled away. After Barry testified, Reilly’s attorney, Kenniff said that “if Mr. Barry had such difficulty communicating in the controlled environment of the courtroom, with the aid of a court-appointed French interpreter, common sense suggests his intentions and motivations might have been even more prone to misunderstanding when he appeared at Mr. Reilly’s doorstep in the darkness of night.”
Reilly is still employed as the Town of Chester’s Highway Superintendent with the next election for the position set for November of next year.
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