Bronx Man Pleads Guilty To June 18, 2015, Upper West Side Murder

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that STEPHEN ADAMS, 28, of the Bronx, pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV to shooting and killing Bubacarr Camera on June 18, 2015, during an armed robbery of a small business on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and a June 16, 2015, armed robbery of another small business in Harlem.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “In the course of robbing a small business, Stephen Adams murdered an innocent shopkeeper, Bubacarr Camera, who had recently come to this country to pursue a better life.  I want to thank the ATF, the NYPD, and the U.S. Marshals for their outstanding investigative work on this case.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment to which STEPHEN ADAMS pled guilty and other documents in the public record:         

On June 18, 2015, STEPHEN ADAMS and two other men, Zubearu Bettis and Michael Adams, shot and killed Bubacarr Camera in the course of a robbery of a store located at 906 Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Two days before that murder, on June 16, 2015, Zubearu Bettis and STEPHEN ADAMS robbed another shopkeeper at a store located at 2251 7th Avenue, in Manhattan.  During that robbery, Bettis brandished and discharged a firearm, while ADAMS physically accosted the victim.

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The charges to which STEPHEN ADAMS pled guilty carry a maximum of life in prison, and a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison.  The maximum and minimum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant would be determined by the judge.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared Lenow and Max Nicholas are in charge of the prosecution.