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Ten Years for Leading a Lynch Mob?

Posted February 20, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.

Kevin Shea really had no choice but to plead guilty. Once his statements incriminating himself were ruled admissible, no jury would acquit him. So why did the judge say Shea would receive no more than ten years in jail?

Shea was not some innocent enlisted by Jeff Conroy at the last minute for the killing of Marcelo Lucero. He was a named participant in the very first attack by the group of Patchogue Medford High School Students on Latinos. According to Newsday: “The attacks [began]  Sept. 23, 2007, when prosecutors said Kevin Shea, 17, of Medford, and other unnamed attackers hit Luis Pina Tigre in the head, kicked him and taunted him with racial slurs.” Nearly 14 months before Lucero was hunted down and murdered, Shea had already participated in a clearly race-based attack that could have maimed or killed a man.

Shea participated in another potentially deadly attack. It took place just five days before Lucero was killed. In it, he and others beat Octavio Cordovo, another Latino, into unconsciousness. According to Jeff Conroy, when the cops showed up after the attack, they took no action against the marauders.

Judge Doyle said that his light sentence was designed to encourage Shea to testify against Jeff Conroy, who has been accused of the actual stabbing. But, the judge’s own ruling allowing in Conroy’s confession would seem to militate against the need for Shea’s testimony. Within minutes of his arrest, Conroy told police that he had stabbed Lucero. Conroy’s confession is even more damning. Here is what he says about the minutes leading up to the stabbing:

“They [Lucero and a friend] were older then us and as we walked up to them Anthony Hartford and Kevin Shea who we call “Kuvan” called the two guys “Beaners” and “Mexicans.” Chris and I were being quiet and I do not recall Jordan saying anything, but everyone else said shit like “Beaner” and “Fucking Mexicans.”

The physical altercation ended when I stabbed the guy. I said to Nicky “Oh shit I am fucked [I] stabbed him” as I showed him the blood on my knife.
We began to walk back to Jordan’s S.U.V. I kept the knife although Chris told me to throw it out. I tried to wash the blood off in a puddle, but there was still blood on it. We continued to walk to the S.U.V. and a cop car pulled up on us. Within a minute or two there were five or six cop cars there. I walked up to a big cop and asked to speak to him on the side. I told that cop that my knife was tucked in my boxers and I was the one who stabbed the guy. I don’t’ blame the Spanish guy for swinging the belt at us. It was obvious that he wanted to get the fuck out of there.”

Apart from clearly identifying Shea’s role in starting the attack, Conroy again admits to stabbing Lucero. Earlier in his confession he makes it clear that he went out that night intending to attack Latinos.

In addition to Conroy’s statements, Conroy told the police where to find the knife that he used to kill Lucero. The knife still had the murdered man’s blood on it.

And if that isn’t enough to convict Conroy, one of the attackers, Nick Hausch, already has pled guilty and agreed to testify. Unlike Shea, Hausch appears to have been a recent addition to the group. Shea, on the other hand, may have been one of the first to start the reign of terror for Patchogue’s Latinos.

With his testimony unnecessary, his participation in the lynch mob extensive, his prior involvement in two other potentially deadly attacks, and his role in selecting Marcelo Lucero as a target and initiating the attack that took this honest working man’s life, why is Kevin Shea a proper object of clemency? 

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Tags : hate crimes, kevin shea, marcelo lucero, suffolk

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