Ten-Year-Old Bronx Murder Case May Soon End

By JOHN MORRIS

A Bronx jury on Tuesday listened to a recorded playback of the testimony of a key witness as they prepared to deliberate the fate of an alleged gang member in the second trial of a case that started more than ten years ago.

The defendant, Edgar Morales, 32, listened without emotion to the voice of his former Mexican gang brother Enrique Sanchez swearing before the jury that Morales, whose street name was Puebla, was the gunman in an August 2002 shootout that left a 10-year-old girl dead.

It was a climactic moment in three-week trial that may represent the final act in a criminal justice odyssey.

Morales, reputedly of the St. James Boys gang, was indicted by the Bronx DA in May 2004, along with 18 members and associates. The charges included conspiracy, murder, and criminal possession of weapons as acts of terrorism.

The terrorism angle became the flashpoint of the charges.

In the wake of 9/11, the federal government enacted the Terrorism Act of 2001, which the states implemented into the penal laws. New York lawmakers used vague sections of the law to up penalties on violent felony charges.

In section 490.25, of New York’s penal law it states “A person is guilty of a crime of terrorism when, with intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population…he or she commits a specified offense.”

The Bronx DA used the vague definition of the clause to charge Mr. Morales with terrorism to crack down on gang violence, making Morales was the first target in New York of such tactics. In 2007, Morales was convicted of terrorism charges and sentence to 40 years to life in prison.

However two years ago the State Court of Appeals threw out the terrorism charges, as an “overreach” and ordered a new trial on the other charges which – if he is convicted – could cut the original sentence by more than half.

Morales’s trial stems from a 2002 shooting that killed a little girl, and paralyzed another person. According to  Sanchez, on August 17, 2002, he and members of the gang crashed a christening party at the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in the Parkchester section of the Bronx. Once inside, the gang announced their presence, and confronted a rival gang member.

Following the celebration, members of both gang exited the church began fighting. Sanchez, who admits to being involved in the scuffle, testified that he heard gang leader shout out a Mexican slang that means, “to shoot.” Sanchez told prosecutors that Morales who was holding the gang’s gun, heard the call, he began shooting at the crowd, firing five shots.

Melanie Mendez, a10-year-old bystander was hit in the head by one of the bullets and killed. A member of the rival gang was also shot and paralyzed..

Sanchez took a plea deal from the prosecutor for a lesser charge in exchange for his testimony. He described the gang’s weekly meeting where he and other members would “pay dues”that were used to “to go buy more guns, alcohol, and drugs.” He served seven years in prison for manslaughter and was released in 2011.