One of Two Men Charged With 2021 Christmas Killing in North Sea Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter

One of two men charged with the 2021 Christmas morning slaying of a Southampton man during a violent home invasion pleaded guilty in County Court in Riverside to manslaughter in the first degree on Thursday, May 23.

Dangelo Soto, 24, is expected to be sentenced on July 9 to 17 years in state prison, a sentence agreed upon by the district attorney’s office, represented by Assistant District Attorney Maria Troulakis, Soto’s attorney, Ira Weissman, and the district court judge presiding over the case, Karen Wilutis.

Before entering the guilty plea, Soto admitted, under oath, that he and his accomplice were both armed with shotguns, and that, seeking cocaine and money, they beat the victim, Steven Byrnes, 53, in his North Sea home with their weapons before Soto shot and killed Byrnes.

Wilutis has given the other defendant, Dominick Parisi, 60, until June 5 to decide whether he is going to plead to the same charge as Soto, manslaughter in the first degree, or go straight to trial on the same charges that Soto was facing before he made his deal: murder in the second degree and two counts of burglary in the first degree. The murder charge alone calls for a sentence of up to 25 years to life in prison.

Both men have been incarcerated since their arrest in early 2022.

If Parisi takes the offer from Troulakis to plead to manslaughter, his sentence, as promised by Wilutis, will be 20 years, which is three years longer than Soto’s sentence. That is because he had been convicted of the same crime, manslaughter in the first degree, in 1989 after shooting and killing Patricia Pominski at point-blank range in an industrial park in Bohemia around midnight on February 23, 1987. Parisi served 17 years in New York State prison for that killing.

Wilutis made it clear to Parisi during his last court appearance before her on May 20 that if he does not take the D.A.’s offer, which she called “very generous,” and is tried and convicted as charged, he should not expect any mercy from her when it comes to sentencing.

On Christmas morning, 2021, Byrnes was asleep in his bedroom in his home on Roses Grove Road in the North Sea section of Southampton when Soto and Parisi, both masked and dressed in all black, entered the home through the attached garage, District Attorney Ray Tierney has previously stated to the media.

As part of the plea bargain process, particularly with a felony, the prosecutor will ask a series of questions about the crime to ensure that the defendant cannot later claim that he did not know what he was pleading to.

In addition, the questions can be used to incriminate a co-defendant who has not yet taken a plea, as is the case with Parisi.

Troulakis asked Soto if he and Parisi beat Byrnes with their shotguns. Soto answered, “Yes.” She then asked if he, Soto, “working in concert with Dominick Parisi,” shot and killed Byrnes. “Yes,” Soto replied.

He also testified that he and Parisi drove to Byrnes’s residence in Parisi’s black Mercedes-Benz.

Through the entire process, Soto, a heavy-set man with hair braided in thin locks, wearing a red-checked shirt, khaki slacks and a white skull cap, answered the prosecutor’s questions in a subdued voice with one-word answers.

After entering his guilty plea, as court officers were about to lead Soto away, Weissman asked if his client could be allowed to turn and look back at his family. In the otherwise empty courtroom was a young woman who was sobbing. Soto turned and looked at her, nodded, and was then taken away.

After he is sentenced on July 9, Soto will be transferred from county jail to a downstate facility, where he will spend a couple of weeks before being transferred to an upstate prison by the state’s Department of Corrections.