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Is a Plea Deal Possible in Jeffrey Conroy Trial?

Posted April 7, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: Hate Watch

With little courtroom activity today in the murder trial of Jeffrey Conroy, who is accused of stabbing and killing Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero in a November 2008 hate crime, speculation ensued among reporters as to whether Conroy would get a plea deal.

The jury was asked to report to Riverhead’s criminal court at 10am for trial today, but they weren’t called into court until 11:10am. After Judge Doyle read the minutes of a document that was offered into evidence yesterday*, assistant district attorney Megan O’Donnell said that the prosecution would rest.

Yesterday, the district attorney’s office said that they expected defense attorney William Keahon to call a few witness to testify today. Instead, Keahon asked Judge Doyle for an in-chambers conference between themselves and O’Donnell. District attorney Thomas J. Spota was also in the courthouse today, and some reporters speculated that might be meeting with Keahon, as well.

As reporters, family, and friends waited for the trial to resume, around 11:30pm a court officer said that the trial would resume at 1:30pm, a longer than normal lunch break.

Despite the strange morning, a plea deal appears unlikely. Here’s why:

—Marcelo Lucero’s brother, Joselo, wants to see justice served.
Joselo has been present for nearly every hearing and court date involving the alleged attack on his brother. With seven defendants, that can add up to quite a bit of trial time, which I think speaks for how passionate his is about seeing his brother’s alleged attackers litigated. I spoke with Joselo in the parking lot after we broke for lunch, and he said that he had not been contacted by the district attorney about any kind of plea deal, and that he strongly believed Conroy should be tried on the second-degree murder charge that he currently faces.

—The district attorney would look bad.
Yesterday, I asked one veteran reporter if a plea deal was possible, and he said that such deals are uncommon in Suffolk County. The reasoning: The county has invested a lot of time, energy, and, perhaps most important, tax dollars, in this prosecution, and officials wouldn’t want to see that wasted on a plea that they might have gotten without a trial.

—The defense has nowhere to go.
In the course of the past few weeks, the prosecution has piled on evidence of Conroy’s guilt: an oral and written confession, Marcelo Lucero’s blood on Conroy’s knife and clothes, testimony from several other Latino attack victims. And that’s not including Conroy’s white-power tattoos, which several witnesses testified about.

Over the duration of the trial, Keahon has suggested many theories as to why Conroy isn’t guilty of murder: He was on his way to a friend’s house that night, and just needed a ride. He’s got black and Latino friends, how could he be racist? The emergency services that came to Lucero’s aid were too slow—blame those guys (In a previous post, we explain why that claim would be relevant in a wrongful death suit against the ambulance company, but not in Conroy’s murder trial).

Keahon has even suggested that Marcelo Lucero “chased” his alleged attackers while swinging his belt above his head. Yesterday, Det. John McLeer, the lead detective on the Lucero case, emphatically denied that allegation, stating that Lucero was defending himself. Assistant district attorney Megan O’Donnell reminded the jury that in written statements given to police after the alleged attack, not a single one of the defendants claimed that they were chased by Lucero. In sum and substance, all of the defendants agreed in their written statements that their group was the aggressor.

So why all the hoopla this morning? Well, for the first time in weeks, reporters out here don’t have a story to file, and with no news to report, some of us need to pass the time with speculation. We read the sports page hours ago.

More after lunch.

*The minutes were of Nicholas Hausch’s plea agreement.

Tags : hate crimes, jeffrey conroy, marcelo lucero, plea, suffolk

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