Opinion ID: 783826
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Murder of Darryl DeJesus in Pennsylvania

Text: 14 Other than the murder of Santiago, the only other homicide that occurred during the period relevant to the indictment, about which there was trial testimony, was Garcia's murder of Darryl DeJesus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in March 1995. 1 In Garcia's sworn plea allocution from a separate proceeding that was introduced at the Defendants' trial, Garcia stated that he had been sent on a mission by Pimentel to provide assistance to a Netas chapter in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but that before that complaint came down, this other woman, she lives in Manhattan ... offered [him] the opportunity to go to Lancaster where her sister was with drugs and needed someone to act as her security while her husband was in jail. The name of his friend's sister was Cuchi. Garcia stated that Pimentel told him that he should take a little vacation, go to Lancaster and at the same time take care of what was going on in Allentown. Garcia stated that, while in Lancaster, he bumped into this situation where some guys was going into war with the lady where I was staying at and they put me in a position like what I was going to do about it. On the day DeJesus was killed, Garcia, anticipating that he might run into these individuals, armed himself with a semiautomatic pistol and was ready to, if [he] bump[ed] into these guys, to go over there and get them out of the way, finish what was going on between us so [he could] finish doing the violations and the thing [he] went there to do. 15 In his testimony at the trial below, Garcia for the first time claimed that Pimentel had been consulted before the woman in Manhattan recruited him to help her sister in Lancaster, and he vaguely asserted that they had sent him there to handle a problem that the sister had. According to Garcia, the nature of the problem he was to address was not made clear before his departure: I was not told exactly what was the problem and I found out later when I got there. 16 The events leading up to DeJesus' murder began when DeJesus and his brother entered a restaurant where Garcia and Cuchi were eating, and DeJesus began making remarks to Garcia. According to Garcia, DeJesus' brother was telling DeJesus that Garcia had an eye problem.... He was saying I was looking at him but he was talking out loud. He was saying this little guy got a problem. I don't know who he thinks he is. He better check coming down here like that, saying things like that. The following day, Garcia was in a car with Cuchi when they saw DeJesus and his brother hanging out on the corner. Cuchi drove around the block, stopped the car, and asked Garcia what he was going to do about it. In response, Garcia told her to wait while he went around the block to shoot the two brothers and their companions. He then shot DeJesus. 17 On cross examination, Garcia explained the connection between his mission and his murder of DeJesus as follows: 18 When I was sent to go to Pennsylvania, like I said from the beginning, I was sent to go check on a problem in Allentown, bring some manitos, check on another problem they knew the sister had in Pennsylvania. I was not told what was the problem. I was told to check the problem when I got there. 19 When I went to Pennsylvania, those was the guys they was already having problems with Cuchi and Cuchi's family. So, Lancaster is small, rural, everybody knows each other. When they started seeing me with Cuchi and them, so they started making remarks and they didn't like me from the beginning. In the restaurant that incident we had, after that incident then I learned later the problem that they had was before I went to Lancaster, they had an argument over a parking space with Coca, that's... Cuchi's niece..... 20 They got into an argument with these guys over the parking lot and they started, they jumped [Cuchi's daughter] and when [Cuchi's niece] tried to break it up, they jumped [her] too, and her husband. As a result, [Cuchi's niece] had a miscarriage, she lost the baby. The police got involved and everything, nobody got prosecuted and that was the problem that they had from the beginning which I was sent for, that I was sent to Lancaster for. 21 Q: That's why you had to commit a murder? 22 A: It happened at the time, yes. 23 Q: It happened? 24 A: Yes. 25 Q: You made it happen. 26 A: I was put in a position where I had to. 27 Q: Well, isn't what happened that a woman said to you what watcha goin' to do? Isn't that what happened? 28 A: No, what happened was I was sent on a mission up there and I did what I had to do. 29 In addition to the testimony pertaining to the murder of DeJesus, the Government presented testimony that the Netas endorsed execution as a sanction for violating certain Netas rules. In particular, Garcia testified that the Netas' punishment for rape or for being a snitch was execution. Moreover, at the Defendants' trial, Special Agent Jeffrey Ringel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified that, following Pimentel's arrest, [w]hen asked if she was aware of the violence connected with the Netas, [Pimentel] claimed that they used to beat up members ... and were responsible for the murder of [four individuals]. V. Netas Efforts to Murder Members of a Rival Group 30 During the Defendants' trial, Garcia testified about another shooting that occurred in September or October of 1994. He described the relevant events as follows: 31 I was with Caveman [another member of the Netas] there and some guys came running from the organization, from the Netas. They said they was having a fight with the Papichulos [another gang]. So, Caveman, I, [and] some other guys from the chapter started running over there. We got into a fight with them and I had cut one of them with a razor. 32 . . . . 33 They was throwing bottles at some Latin Queens, some Netas, guys and girls passing through there, cursing them out, saying words and throwing bottles. 34 . . . . 35 [Twenty to twenty-five minutes later, a] cab pulled over and three guys got out of the car. One of them had a bat. The other one had a shotgun. They crossed the street, but before they came around the corner, Caveman had some guys on the roof watching. The guys started throwing bottles at the Dominicans [i.e., the Papichulos]. When the Dominicans looked at them, Caveman looked at the Dominicans, they started running, went inside the building. I seen Caveman, he opened up a window, he came out but he had a Mach-10 in his hand. 36 . . . . 37 That's also like a machine gun, too, automatic weapon. He started screaming the Dominican's gang leader, Felipe. He says I know it's you. Show your face. He shot one up, Felipe, came out, started shooting with the shotgun. Caveman just started spraying them with the gun and the guy started—the guys running, they left, that was it that day.