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A New York town official was convicted of assault and firearms charges after he shot and wounded a DoorDash delivery driver who authorities said had come to the wrong property, according to prosecutors and court testimony described in the case. John Reilly III, the highway superintendent in Chester, faces up to 25 years on the top charge, with sentencing scheduled for May, after a jury returned a mixed verdict in the trial.
Prosecutors said the incident occurred on May 2, 2025, when Reilly shot at Alpha Barry’s car as the delivery driver was leaving Reilly’s property. The case turned on competing accounts of what the driver was doing and what Reilly believed, with the defense arguing Reilly acted to protect his family and home.
Reilly maintained he was acting in self-defense when he fired, and the dispute centered on what led up to the shooting and what the footage showed, including video from Reilly’s Ring doorbell camera. Prosecutors and reporting described video showing Barry walking up to Reilly’s front door with a plastic bag and ringing the doorbell before leaving.
Additional clips described in the case included Barry back inside his car as Reilly exited his house with a handgun and fired a shot into his lawn, with prosecutors saying the footage then appeared to show Reilly shooting at the car as it drove away. Prosecutors said one of those shots hit Barry in the back.
Barry later underwent emergency surgery, prosecutors said, and they reported that more than 2 feet of his small bowels were removed. Authorities said the case also included findings about weapons at Reilly’s home, with prosecutors saying they found a number of guns that he was not licensed to own.
District Attorney David M. Hoovler said after the verdict that Reilly showed a “depraved indifference to human life,” characterizing the decision as falling outside self-defense. In court, Reilly’s defense argued that events unfolded after confusion and communication issues, including testimony that Reilly’s daughter woke him up after the doorbell rang.
Defense attorney Thomas Kenniff said Barry did not order food and told Barry he did not order any delivery, but that the driver insisted on entering the house to charge his phone, which the defense said led Reilly to worry about a home invasion. Kenniff also said Thursday that he is “confident that we will have a viable appeal,” according to reporting.
On the stand, Barry testified that he did not ask to enter Reilly’s home, only to have his phone charged, according to News12 Westchester. The defense also told jurors that Reilly had struggled to communicate with Barry, described by the outlet as a recent immigrant from Guinea.
The jury began deliberations on Tuesday and reached a decision that did not match the most serious charge the case had included. Reilly was acquitted of one assault charge but convicted of another assault charge that centered on whether he acted recklessly, while prosecutors said he was also charged with attempted murder but the jury did not have to consider that charge after the reckless-assault conviction.
Shootings involving people who mistakenly go to the wrong house have tested the limits of stand-your-ground laws in recent years, with juries weighing what the shooter reasonably believed in the moment and how their actions align with the legal standards.