He appeared less than pleased to be in front of the cameras.
An upstate New York man facing charges in a grisly murder-for-hire case became irritated when courtroom cameras captured him during jury deliberations at his Orange County trial Wednesday—and responded by raising his middle finger.
Douglas McFarlane is charged with first- and second-degree murder in the 2019 shooting death of 26-year-old Sebastian Avilan-Medina inside the victim’s Middletown home. McFarlane initially tried to cover his face from the courtroom cameras before making the vulgar gesture, News12 reported.
“A jury is now deliberating the fate of Douglas McFarlane, accused of taking $10K to fatally shoot a Middletown, NY business owner,” News12 reporter Blaise Gomez wrote on X. “Today, he appeared to give me the finger as I took court-approved photos.”
Prosecutors allege that McFarlane was paid $10,000 by his alleged co-defendant, Sheldon Paul, in March 2019. Authorities say Paul wanted Avilan-Medina killed because he believed the victim had burglarized his home, according to the outlet.
The investigation remained unsolved for five years. In 2024, police arrested McFarlane, Paul and Dijion Constantine and charged all three in connection with the killing.
Constantine, who prosecutors say was paid in marijuana for his part in the contract killing, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in June. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
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Paul’s first trial ended in a mistrial in April. He was convicted of second-degree murder in a retrial earlier this month and could receive 25 years to life when he is sentenced in January.
McFarlane’s case went to the jury Wednesday after closing arguments. Prosecutors pointed to phone records, surveillance video and testimony from Constantine, who provided evidence as part of his guilty plea.
McFarlane’s attorneys argued that the prosecution’s case is circumstantial, emphasizing that investigators found no DNA evidence linking their client to the crime.
The trial has been especially painful for Avilan-Medina’s family.
“It is a roller coaster of emotions,” the victim’s father, Bryan Avilan, told News12. “It’s hard to go through all that happened to our son.”
Avilan said the family has also struggled to protect Avilan-Medina’s son, who was only 1 year old when his father was shot and killed, from the details of the case.
“It’s hard to bring this home and trying to hide it because we don’t want him to know yet what happened to daddy,” Avilan said.
