Suffolk jury convicts Deer Park woman in bomb attack maiming boyfriend
A Deer Park woman was convicted after prosecutors said an explosive device ripped off her boyfriend’s hand and part of his arm. The jury found the attack was preceded by months of threats with dynamite.
A Suffolk County jury convicted Keyonna Waddell, 35, of Deer Park, after prosecutors said she threw an explosive device into her boyfriend’s bedroom and left him permanently maimed. The verdict, returned April 24, 2026, found her guilty of Assault in the First Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the First Degree, both violent felonies that carry exposure of up to 25 years in prison.
The attack happened on March 22, 2024, after the couple argued at his apartment and he told Waddell to leave. Prosecutors said he later went to bed after not seeing her in the home, then woke to a hissing noise and saw flames on the floor and an object that looked like a stick of dynamite.
He tried to put out the device and then attempted to throw it outside, but it detonated before he could get out of the house. According to the evidence at trial, he then saw Waddell flee on foot. Police transported him to Nassau University Medical Center, where the remainder of his hand and part of his arm were amputated.
Prosecutors said Waddell had threatened him with dynamite multiple times in the months before the attack, a detail that helped frame the case as more than a sudden domestic dispute. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said the case showed how quickly intimate-partner violence can turn catastrophic. “Domestic violence can escalate to deadly levels, and this case is a sobering reminder of that reality,” Tierney said.
The Suffolk County Police Department assisted in the prosecution, and Waddell’s lawyer said she maintains her innocence. She is due back in court for sentencing on May 27, 2026.
The verdict lands in a county that has long relied on a domestic-violence network built around the Suffolk County Task Force to Prevent Family Violence and the Suffolk County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, groups that work to educate the public, protect victims and coordinate services. At the state level, New York’s domestic-violence framework also recognizes the connection between abuse and gun violence and includes firearm-seizure provisions tied to protective orders, underscoring how cases like this are now being treated as a public-safety threat as much as a family tragedy.
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