Two Newburgh men get prison terms in gun battle case

A Newburgh gun battle that police pieced together from video and other evidence ended with prison terms for two young men after both admitted illegally carrying loaded firearms.

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler said Zephaniah Mason, 21, of New Windsor, was sentenced Monday, April 27, 2026, to six years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision. His co-defendant, Naviean Wheeler, 20, of Newburgh, had already been sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years of supervision in two separate gun-possession cases.

The case stemmed from an April 28, 2025 encounter at about 7 p.m. in the City of Newburgh. Prosecutors said Mason and Wheeler were walking with a group of males when they met another group and exchanged gunfire. Investigators used video from various sources to identify the two men, and both later admitted in plea proceedings that they illegally possessed loaded firearms.

Hoovler said the reckless discharge of guns endangers everyone who lives, works and spends time in Newburgh. The investigation was handled by the Non-Fatal Shooting Taskforce, which brings together the City of Newburgh Police Department, Orange County District Attorney staff and analysts from the Hudson Valley Crime Analysis Center. The task force is paid for through the state’s Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative, known as GIVE, and is meant to strengthen cases when victims and witnesses do not cooperate.

That approach has become central to how Orange County is trying to hold down gun violence in Newburgh. County and city officials have leaned for years on focused deterrence, joint investigations and outreach programs such as RECAP’s SNUG initiative, which works with high-risk young people through conflict mediation, crisis intervention and services. The city has also said earlier operations helped drive down shootings, including a 64% drop in bullet-to-body shootings after Operation Bandemic in 2023.

The latest sentencing shows how prosecutors are still working through the fallout from last year’s shooting violence even as state leaders point to improvement. In April 2026, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Newburgh was one of five GIVE departments that reported zero shooting incidents in the first quarter of 2026, while the 28 GIVE departments statewide reported 81 shooting incidents involving injury through March, down from 229 in the same period in 2021. For Newburgh, the Mason and Wheeler sentences stand as another test of whether that pressure campaign is changing street behavior as well as case outcomes.