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Jeffrey Conroy: I Didn’t Attack Marcelo Lucero, Got the Knife From Chris Overton

Posted April 8, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: Hate Watch

Jeffrey Conroy, accused of stabbing and killing Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero in a November 2008 hate crime, testified in his own defense today in his ongoing murder trial in Riverhead’s criminal court.

Under direct examination by his defense attorney, William Keahon, Conroy addressed events related to the murder and manslaughter charges against him.

Contradicting testimony from alleged attack victims, fellow defendants, physical evidence, and even his own written confession to police, Conroy testified that Christopher Overton—a defendant still awaiting trial, but not charged with murder or manslaughter—admitted to stabbing Lucero moments after the incident.

“He said, ‘Jeff, I think I just stabbed the guy,’” Conroy told the jury. “‘I can’t get in trouble, so can you take the knife?’”

Conroy said that he looked back at Lucero as he took the knife from Overton:

“I looked back, and the guy was walking away,” Conroy testified.

Conroy testified that weeks before the alleged attack, he had heard that Overton had been involved in a home invasion where a man died. Conroy also said that Overton mentioned the home invasion while Conroy, Overton, and Jose Pacheco—another defendant—ate dinner at Conroy’s house hours before the alleged attack.

In court yesterday, Judge Robert H. Doyle ruled—while the jury was not present—that Conroy could not testify as to any conversations that he had with Overton, citing hearsay rules.

But this morning Doyle said that Conroy would be able to testify about the conversations, stating that the conversations would speak to Conroy’s state of mind at the time of the alleged attack, and what motivated his actions.

Some jury members wore bemused looks when they entered the courtroom to find Conroy on the witness stand. Marcelo Lucero’s mother, sister, and brother were also in attendance, with Lucero’s mother seeing her son’s accused killer in person for the first time.

Conroy said that he had never intended to go fight “Spanish guys” with the other defendants, and that he was expecting Jordan Dasche, who drove the group that night, to drop him off at the house of his friend Nick Cleary.

Conroy explained that Cleary’s house is on the way from Southaven Park, where the defendants and other friends were hanging out that night, to Patchogue, where the alleged attack took place.

Once the defendants left Southaven Park, Conroy added, they never stopped in Nick Hausch’s neighborhood to look for Latinos to fight, as Hausch testified earlier in the trial.

Before Conroy left Southaven Park, he said, his friend Michelle Cassidy asked him not to go with the group.

“She said, ‘No chill, don’t go with them. I don’t want you to get in trouble,’” Conroy testified.

“I said, ‘I’m not going with them, I’m either going to my house or going to Nick Cleary’s house.’”

When they got in the car, Conroy said that he initially asked Dasche to drop him off at his friend’s house. “He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’”

“Was it ever your intent when you got in that car to go and fight anybody?” Keahon asked Conroy.

“No,” Conroy replied.

Once the group was on the road from Southaven Park, Conroy asked Dasche if he could drop him off at Cleary’s house. According to Conroy, Dasche said, “I’ll just drop you off on the way back from Patchogue.”

At the scene of the crime, Conroy said that Anthony Hartford, Kevin Shea, and Jose Pacheco instigated a fight with Angel Loja and Marcelo Lucero, who Conroy referred to as the tall guy and the short guy. Conroy said that he remembered Nicholas Hausch calling them “beaners,” but that other kids called Loja and Lucero “asshole,” “nigger,” and motherfuckers.”

According to Conroy, Loja responded, “I’m not a nigger, you are,” speaking to Jose Pacheco, who had a darker complexion than the rest of the group.

During the alleged attack, Conroy said that he saw Shea punch Lucero in what appeared to be Lucero’s nose, and that Lucero was bleeding.

After the punch, Conroy said that Lucero took off his belt and began swinging it at the group. Conroy said that he was never hit with the belt, and that he never told detectives that he was hit by the belt during his interrogation.

According to Conroy, the group was chased from Railroad Avenue, where the altercation began, into the Patchogue train station parking lot. As Lucero swung his belt, Christopher Overton and Kevin Shea took off their sweatshirts, Conroy testified, to deflect blows from the belt buckle.

Conroy said that at one point, Lucero, still wielding the belt, began running towards Dasche. Then Conroy saw Overton run towards Lucero, with his sweatshirt in his left hand. Conroy said that he couldn’t see what was in Overton’s right hand.

After Overton approached Lucero, the two split apart, with Lucero screaming. According to Conroy, Overton walked away from Lucero and said “OK, let’s go.”

After Overton gave him the knife, which was bloody, Conroy testified that he tried to clean it.

“I was holding it from the side,” Conroy said. “I put it underneath in a puddle and I started rolling it back and forth.” Conroy also said that he wiped the knife off on his sweatshirt.

In addition, Conroy testified that he wasn’t involved in an alleged attack earlier that night on Hector Sierra, or in an alleged attack on November 3 against Octavio Cordovo.

After two hours of questioning from defense lawyer William Keahon, Judge Doyle called a lunch recess at 12:40pm, and Conroy’s testimony will resume in the afternoon.

Tags : christopher overton, hate crimes, jeffrey conroy, marcelo lucero, stabbing, suffolk

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