A man was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on Tuesday after he was found guilty of the 2013 hate crime murder of a gay man in Greenwich Village.
The sentencing came just days after an allegedly homophobic man killed 49 people and injured 53 more in a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Elliot Morales, 36, was convicted by a New York State Supreme Court jury for murdering Mark Carson on May 18, 2013. He shouted anti-gay slurs at Carson and his friend, and then shot Carson in the face near the corner of Sixth Avenue and West Eighth Street, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.
“Look at you [slur], you look like gay wrestlers,” Morales had said, according to the criminal complaint. He asked Carson if he was with the other man, and when Carson answered yes, Morales shot him, the complaint said.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance referenced the shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016, in the news release about Morales’ sentencing.
“As we mourn the lives lost in Orlando, we remain committed to doing everything we can to combat and prevent crimes against LGBT New Yorkers,” Vance said.
At the sentencing, Judge A. Kirke Bartley reportedly said the crime Morales committed parallels the shooting in Orlando.
“That parallel is revealed in hate, self-loathing, fear and death,” he said.
Morales was convicted of murder in the second degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon, among other charges.
