Guilty in Village murder
After a day of deliberation, a Manhattan jury found Elliot Morales guilty of second-degree murder as a hate crime, weapons possession and menacing in the 2013 shooting of Mark Carson, a 32-year-old gay man.
“Motivated by irrational rage, the defendant targeted and executed a defenseless young man based on his sexual orientation after taunting and insulting the victim and his companion,” Cy Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, said. “Elliot Morales’s hateful and destructive rampage may not have stopped there, if not for the intervention of a brave N.Y.P.D. officer.”
The testimony at trial was that Morales, 36, encountered Carson and a friend, Danny Robinson, on Sixth Ave. outside a 99-cent pizzeria. As the men argued, with Morales using anti-gay slurs, they moved north and then onto Eighth St., where Morales displayed a gun and then fired one shot, striking Carson in the head, killing him. Morales fled east on Eighth St. but was quickly caught by Police Officer Henry Huot. When arrested, Morales made statements that police recorded in which he admitted killing Carson.
Representing himself, Morales testified that he believed Carson was armed and about to shoot him. Morales also said he was intoxicated. When he cross-examined Robinson, 32, the only witness who saw Morales shoot Carson, he elicited testimony that Carson and Robinson had also been drinking.
But Morales’s self-defense and drunkenness arguments did not sway the jury. He will be sentenced April 11.
Facing murder rap
A man wanted in the murder of the rapper Future’s ex-bodyguard was collared Monday as he worked in the produce section of the Morton Williams supermarket at Bleecker St. and LaGuardia Place, according to police.
The New York Post reported that New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force officers busted Tywan Porter in the store around noon, stunning shoppers.
Porter was reportedly ID’d last week as the prime suspect in the shooting death of Michael Phillips, the Atlanta rapper’s former security man, in Georgia.
The Post reported that store co-owner Avi Kaner said Porter applied for a stocking job a week ago and cited an alleged retired New York police officer as a reference.
32 bottles of beer
These guys had their own idea of “bottle service.”
Police said three men unlawfully entered STK Downtown & Rooftop, at 26 Little W. 12th St., on Mon., March 7, at 1 a.m., and removed 32 bottles of alcohol from behind the serving bars. Upon arrest, they were in possession of the stolen property.
Kajuan Powell, 30, Jason Vanhorn and Gurfis Tafe, both 32, were arrested for felony burglary.
Right in the mug
It was a real swinging scene at Off the Wagon bar, at 109 MacDougal St., early Thursday morning — as in, a mug-swinging scene. Police said that around 2 a.m. on March 10, a woman struck a man in the face with a mug, causing multiple lacerations. The man was at the bar prior to the incident and the woman was a stranger.
Police arrested Shakira James, 32, for felony assault.
Cutting confession
A police officer saw a teenage boy riding his bike the wrong way down a one-way street on Fri., March 11, at 12:30 a.m., and stopped him at Charles and Bleecker Sts., police said. The cop asked the youth if he had anything on him that he shouldn’t have.
“I have a knife in my right pocket. I keep it for protection,” he reportedly responded.
Upon a search, a small bag of alleged marijuana and a knife were recovered from the boy.
Treyvon Cunningham, 17, was arrested for felony criminal possession of a weapon.
Twist and shout
Two young women were asked multiple times to leave Henrietta Hudson bar, at 438 Hudson St., early Friday morning March 11, but didn’t take the hint.
Police said that around 3:45 a.m., the pair were acting violently and tumultuously and causing a public alarm and attempted to re-enter the place a second time.
When police arrived, the two “refused to comply with lawful orders” and resisted arrest, flailing their arms, kicking and twisting their bodies, police said.
Luisa Fava and Melany Jimenez, both 21, were arrested for misdemeanor obstructing government administration.
— Emily Siegel, Duncan Osborne and Lincoln Anderson
