Opinion ID: 782204
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Remainder of Trial

Text: 17 After the Sirois hearing, the jury returned to the courtroom, and the two police officers who met with Echevarria during his trial preparation sessions testified that Echevarria had identified Cotto as the shooter during those sessions. One of the officers also indicated that when the prosecutor asked Echevarria why he had not previously identified Cotto as the shooter in his statements to the police shortly after Davilla's shooting in 1992, and Echevarria replied that he was scared to do so. Another police officer testified that in the ambulance after the shooting, Davilla had identified Cotto as the shooter. The police officer's testimony was corroborated by the emergency medical technician in the ambulance, who also heard Davilla identify someone named Richie as the shooter. 18 Kenny Cobb, another civilian witness to testify at trial, testified that he had also been with Davilla, Echevarria and other people on the corner that evening, heard the shots, jumped inside a building, and came back out when the shots had stopped. Cobb saw someone running from the park who he could not describe, asked Echevarria what was going on and Echevarria told him they were shooting. Cobb testified that he left the scene immediately afterwards because he had drugs in his pocket. In his testimony, he did not identify the shooter, or say that Echevarria told him who the shooter was. The defense did not call any witnesses. 19 At the conclusion of trial, the jury convicted Cotto of all the charges. On August 22, 1996, the trial court sentenced Cotto to an indeterminate prison term of 25 years to life.