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Pained by Her Son’s Murder, Rosario Lucero Not Ready To Attend Trial

Posted April 5, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: Hate Watch

Back in early March, I reported that Maria Rosario Lucero was stranded in Ecuador due to visa issues, while the trial began for Jeffrey Conroy, who allegedly stabbed and killed her son, Marcelo, in November 2008.

In early March, Marcelo’s brother, Joselo Lucero, who lives in Patchogue, told me that his mother, sister, and nephew were waiting for an April 3 visa interview in Ecuador before they could travel to the U.S. for the trial.

However, after making the journey from South America to Suffolk County—it’s the fourth time Lucero’s 60-year-old mother has flown here since her son’s murder—Maria Rosario didn’t feel ready to face her son’s accused killer.

Newsday’s Bart Jones reports:

Rosario Lucero sat in the tiny kitchen of the cramped second-floor apartment her son Joselo rents in Patchogue, miles away from the courtroom in Riverhead where the hate crime trial for the murder of her other son, Marcelo, was under way.

Rosario and her daughter Isabel had traveled from Gualaceo, Ecuador, to attend the trial, but when Monday morning broke, Rosario realized she was not emotionally and physically up to seeing her son’s alleged killer, Jeffrey Conroy, in person for the first time.

“I don’t want to see what they did to my son,” she said in Spanish, referring to the brutal and explicit testimony at the trial. “It’s hard to listen to it.”

Lucero’s sister, Isabel, however, accompanied Joselo to court on Monday. It was the first time she would see Conroy in person:

As Joselo and Isabel walked into the courthouse close to 10 a.m., Isabel said she was unsure what she felt toward Conroy, whom she was about to see for the first time. “It’s not hate,” she said in Spanish. “It’s something I can’t explain. It’s an emptiness.”

She had little to say after the session was over. “We’ll leave it for later,” she said.

Back at the house, Rosario said she could only hope for justice. “I’m waiting, nothing else,” she said. “At the end of the day, my son is not here.”

Tags : hate crimes, jeffrey conroy, marcelo lucero, maria rosario lucero, newsday, patchogue, suffolk

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