LOCKPORT — The heads of the jury, and everyone else in Judge John Ottaviano’s Niagara County courtroom, jerked backward at the explosive sound of two gunshots captured on security camera video from a convenience store at 18th Street and Niagara Avenue.
The video is a critical piece of evidence in the case against Juan Ubiles, 39, a Falls man accused of gunning down Gregory Vincent on the 2000 block of 18th Street in June 2023. It was the first piece of evidence introduced Friday afternoon to a Niagara County Court jury of 8 women and 4 men who will weigh charges of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon against Ubiles.
Ubiles has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held without bail pending the outcome of his trial.
Falls Police Detective Kevin Henderson testified that after he responded to a call of a “man shot” at the intersection of Niagara Avenue and 18th Street at about 11:10 a.m. on June 19, 2023, he immediately went to a nearby convenience store to view video from its exterior security cameras. Henderson said the cameras captured high-quality video and sound.
First Assistant Niagara County District Attorney Doreen Hoffmann played video for the jury from four different security cameras that showed the 18th Street and Niagara Avenue sides of the building.
At about 10:59 a.m. on the day of Vincent’s murder, the security camera video shows Ubiles randomly walking around in front of the corner store. A few minutes later, the cameras capture Vincent pulling up in his car on the 18th Street side of the store.
Avian Gray, identified as Vincent’s long-time girlfriend, gets out of his vehicle and walks past Ubiles and into the corner store. Gray, who also testified on Friday, said Ubiles did not speak to her as they passed.
The security camera video then shows Ubiles walking toward Vincent’s car and saying, “Wasup, wasup.”
Vincent can be heard replying,” Why you always dogging me?”
Ubiles, as he puts his hands on the waistband of the shorts he is wearing, says, “I don’t put (expletive) in jail, I put them in the dirt.”
The video then shows Ubiles drawing a handgun and running toward Vincent’s car, while the victim jumps out out of the driver’s seat of his vehicle and begins to run. Ubiles reaches over the roof of Vincent’s car and the first two gunshots ring out.”
Gray can be seen coming out of the store, and the audio recorded on the video captures her screaming, “Greg. Greg,” as she runs down 18th Street toward her boyfriend and Ubiles. Then three more gunshots can be heard and the video captures the images of Ubiles quickly walking back up 18th Street toward Niagara Avenue.
Ubiles is last seen walking east on Niagara Avenue in the direction of his parents’ home.
Falls Police patrol officers said when they arrived at the scene they found Vincent, 44, lying on the apron of a driveway and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest. Vincent was rushed to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Gray testified that she heard a “bang” while she was in the corner store and thought it might have been from nearby road construction. But when she came out of the store, she didn’t see Vincent in his car and saw “gun smoke” wafting down 18th Street.
“I panicked,” Gray said. “I saw gun smoke and I ran toward where I saw the gun smoke.”
She passed Ubiles as she ran toward her boyfriend, and she said she heard him say, “Stop playing me Vincenzo.”
When Gray reached Vincent, she said she took off the jacket she was wearing and “held him” in it until police arrived.
Ubiles fled from the Falls after the incident. He was captured in Philadelphia, almost three months later, after an intense manhunt by Falls Police Criminal Investigation Division (CID) detectives and U.S. Marshals.