A Brooklyn Supreme Court jury convicted 31-year-old Crown Heights man Hakeem Smith of first-degree murder and third-degree arson, and Justice John Hecht sentenced him to life in prison without parole for shooting a sneaker seller three times in the head, stealing his $25,000 collection of rare kicks, and setting his body and rental car on fire in a desolate corner of Red Hook. Smith was sentenced to life without parole after being convicted last month of first-degree murder and third-degree arson in the February 2020 killing of Douglas Young.
According to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, the fatal encounter occurred on February 6, 2020, near 621 Court Street in Red Hook, after Smith diverted Young from an initial meeting spot near Barclays Center to the remote location. Young, a Georgia man, had traveled to Brooklyn that month planning to sell 10 pairs of high-end sneakers to Smith, according to reporting from Brooklyn Paper. The two men knew each other and had previously conducted similar sneaker business, per the same outlet.
Young showed Smith the sneakers and was sitting in the front passenger seat of the rental car when Smith shot him three times in the head, Brooklyn Paper reports. Prosecutors say Smith then took the sneakers and, according to the district attorney's office, returned to the same Red Hook spot to set Young's body and the rental car on fire. The collection Smith stole included a Nike Air Force 1 Low VLONE, a Nike Dunk SB Low What The Dunk, a Jordan 1 Retro High Off-White Chicago, a Jordan 1 Retro Fragment Friends & Family, a Jordan 1 Retro High Off-White Euro, a Jordan 1 Retro High Travis Scott, a Nike Air Force 1 Low Off-White MCA University Blue, and a Nike Air Yeezy 2 Solar Red.
A Cover Story That Fell Apart
Smith told Young's family and detectives a very different account of that night, per Brooklyn Paper's reporting: that he had met Young near Barclays Center and watched him drive away to meet another person, and that the sneaker deal never happened at all. He even offered to help file a missing-persons report for Young, the outlet notes. District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Smith took elaborate steps to cover up the crime, according to Brooklyn Paper.
The industrial stretch of Court Street where Young died sits in a section of Red Hook marked by warehouses and maritime infrastructure near the Gowanus Canal, an area with an isolated setting that gave Smith cover for both the shooting and the fire that followed.
Arrest, Trial, and Sentencing Six Years Later
NYPD officers arrested Smith on September 11, 2020, seven months after Young's burned body was found in Red Hook, according to a New York Daily News report from that period. It took until August 25, 2026, for a Brooklyn Supreme Court jury to convict him following trial, per the district attorney's office. Justice John Hecht handed down the life-without-parole sentence, Brooklyn Paper reports.
Gonzalez said the sentence holds Smith accountable for Young's killing and expressed sympathy for Young's family, friends, and community, according to Brooklyn Paper. Under New York Penal Law § 125.27, first-degree murder concerns intent to cause death, according to the Mirela Piroli Law Firm. The arson charge was third-degree arson.
Broader Push Against Marketplace Robberies
Smith's case predates a since-launched NYPD safety measure aimed at exactly this kind of crime. To cut down on violent robberies tied to peer-to-peer sales, the NYPD established 24/7 designated E-Commerce Exchange Zones monitored by video surveillance outside precincts across New York City in November 2023, according to FOX 5 New York. The zones were designed to give buyers and sellers a secure, monitored setting for high-value transactions rather than meeting at secluded locations like the Red Hook block where Young died.
Citywide, homicides had been trending downward in the years after Young's murder — New York City recorded 386 homicides in 2023, an 11.9% decrease from 2022, according to the Daily News. Smith's sentencing also lands amid a string of major felony prosecutions from the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, which in August 2026 indicted two men on attempted murder charges in an 88-count Coney Island mass shooting case, the office notes.
