A jury found a young Brooklyn man guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime for fatally stabbing professional dancer O'Shae Sibley outside a gas station in 2023, but a jury acquitted him of the more serious charge of murder as a hate crime.

Dmitriy Popov, 20, was convicted after a three-week trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court which featured video from multiple angles of the stabbing, testimony from more than a half-dozen witnesses who said he yelled racist and homophobic slurs at the gay, Black Sibley and his friends before the killing, and a dramatic day last week where the young suspect took the stand in his own defense.

The judge set sentencing for June 30.

Popov did his defense no favors on the stand, contradicting what was often visible in the video, insisting he never used any slurs, cryptically questioning the motives of two witnesses with no connection to anyone involved in the confrontation - and admitting that he threw away his phone, which contained the only footage from the scene with audio.

The jurors began their deliberations late Tuesday afternoon, and appeared to struggle between the various possible charges: murder as a hate crime, murder without the hate crime designation, and manslaughter as a hate crime. They asked Judge Dena Douglas to read back her instructions on those charges several times.

The confrontation unfolded after Sibley and four of his friends pulled into the Mobil station on Coney Island Ave. near Avenue P in Midwood on the night of July 29, 2023, shirtless and dressed in bathing suits after a day at the Jersey Shore. As they pumped gas, they danced to Beyoncé songs. One of his pals, Otis Pena, was dressed in what was described at trial as a jockstrap.

Popov, who worked at a nearby smoke shop, headed to the Bolla Market attached to the gas station to get a bite to eat. One of Popov's pals saw Sibley and his friends dancing, and started yelling  Get that gay s- out of here  and  Get that f--y s- out of here,  several witnesses testified.

Man Stabbed To Death In Brooklyn

 There is no question that hate showed up that night in the gas station. And it is b

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