A jury on Monday in Brooklyn state supreme court convicted 20-year-old Dmitriy Popov of manslaughter as a hate crime in the July 29, 2023, fatal stabbing of 28-year-old dancer O’Shae Sibley, according to court records. Popov faces between eight and 25 years in prison, with sentencing tentatively scheduled for June 30.
After three weeks of testimony and a week of deliberation, the jury found Popov guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime, second-degree menacing, aggravated harassment in the second degree and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, but acquitted him of the more serious charge of murder as a hate crime — a verdict that spares him a life sentence.
Popov, who was 17 at the time of the stabbing, was tried as an adult under New York state law, which allows anyone over age 13 accused of murder to be prosecuted as an adult.
Sibley and a group of friends had returned from a beach birthday party on the evening of July 29 and stopped at a Brooklyn gas station to fill up his car while playing Beyoncé music. Security camera footage played at trial showed the group dancing shirtless and voguing — a style of dance originating in the ballroom scene popular among queer Black and Latino communities — when another group began taunting them. After a brief argument, the groups appeared to separate, but Popov approached Sibley’s group, hurling insults and recording on his phone, witnesses told the court.
Popov testified that he stabbed Sibley with a five-and-a-half-inch blade in self-defense, saying he became “scared that he was going to get hurt.” He denied directing bigoted language at Sibley. Prosecutors contended that Popov was motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ hatred, arguing that he taunted and jeered at Sibley before killing him.
Popov’s attorney, Mark Pollard, called the verdict “probably bittersweet for both sides.”
“We’re happy he wasn’t guilty of murder but disappointed he wasn’t acquitted on the rest of the charges,” Pollard said.
Sibley grew up in Philadelphia and was a member of the Philadanco dance company. He had moved to New York to pursue his dance career and used his work to celebrate his LGBTQ+ identity, according to friends and company representatives. The attack and subsequent trial drew sustained attention, with vigils held in Brooklyn and Philadelphia in the weeks after his death.