New York Daily News

Choke kid cleared

No slay indict for Bx. teen ‘only protecting his mom’

- BY KERRY BURKE and GRAHAM RAYMAN

A BRONX grand jury has declined to indict a high school football player who came to his mom’s defense and fatally choked her abusive boyfriend, officials said Monday.

Luis Moux, 18, told police he held Stanley Washington, 43, in the chokehold for two minutes on Aug. 14 until he “fell asleep.”

“It was clear that Luis didn’t do anything wrong. He testified in the grand jury and his story didn’t change a bit,” said Moux’s attorney, Walter Fields.

“He’s going to move on with his life. When you are an innocent man, you just want to move on with your life,” Fields added.

The teen is a 220-pound offensive lineman on his high school football team at Grand Street Campus High School, a charter school in Williamsbu­rg, Brooklyn.

Moux said he grabbed the boyfriend in the fatal hold after he woke up to find his mom being beaten by Washington. The teen was arraigned the following day, Aug. 15, on manslaught­er charges in Bronx court.

More than 20 people — including friends, relatives, teammates carrying jerseys, his principal and coach — were there to support him. When the judge ordered Moux held on $25,000 cash bail and the teen was led away in cuffs, some supporters burst out in tears.

An online Change.org petition calling for the dismissal of charges garnered more than 23,000 signatures.

The grand jury made its decision earlier this month, officials said.

“That’s good news,” said Moux’s aunt Angelica Carrasquil­o. “He was only protecting his mother. He’s doing good. He’s going to school.”

Moux was in his bedroom at 4:30 a.m. when his mom, Lorena Sesma, 37, began arguing with Washington in the hallway of her University Heights apartment.

Washington had been arrested 33 times in the past for crimes that included assault, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, criminal trespass and possession of marijuana, sources said.

But Washington’s friends and relatives said his name and reputation were sullied in his death.

“The mother is painting Stan out to be an animal, but that’s not the case,” a close friend of Washington’s said when he died. “He took care of that kid while his own father was locked up.”

 ??  ?? Stanley Washington, who was alledgedly killed in a chokehold by Luis Moux.
Stanley Washington, who was alledgedly killed in a chokehold by Luis Moux.

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