KILLER TWIST
Cleared in ’14 murder, he slays co-defendant: cops
A MAN who sued two NYPD detectives after he and a friend were cleared in a 2014 murder is now accused of fatally shooting that same pal in the hallway of a Bronx apartment building.
In July, Salim Wilson, 25, and Julio Velasquez, 24, filed suit against 42nd Precinct detectives David Terrell and Daniel Brady. Wilson and Velasquez spent more than two years in jail, awaiting prosecution in the Jan. 31, 2014, murder of Darin Capehart — a killing they said they did not do.
The cases against them were dismissed on Sept. 6, 2016, and Wilson and Velasquez sued Terrell and Brady, accusing the cops of pressuring two witnesses into identifying them as the shooters.
Less than a year after he was vindicated in the Capehart killing, Velasquez himself became a murder victim. And Wilson now finds himself charged with the slaying.
On Aug. 29, Velasquez was fatally shot on the eighth floor of a McKinley Houses building on E. 161st St. in Morrisania. Police charged Wilson on Monday.
An NYPD spokesman could not provide a motive for the killing Monday night.
Witness Ramon Padilla, who was shot three times in his butt and left leg but survived, identified the two men but later recanted. Velasquez’s lawsuit alleged that Brady assisted Padilla in picking him out of a photo array.
John Scola, a lawyer representing both men in the civil lawsuits, said he doubts Wilson shot Velasquez.
“I know Salim and Julio were as close as brothers,” Scola said. “I would be shocked if these allegations are true.”
In August, police sources said surveillance camera footage showed Velasquez (photo right) pointing his finger and exchanging words with two men in an elevator of the apartment building before the shooting.
Wilson has been locked up since Oct. 18, accused of giving a fake name to police officers looking into him in an auto theft case, police said. He’s been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center, and also awaits extradition on an unrelated warrant from New Jersey, authorities said.
Both Velasquez and Wilson got “pre-settlement funding” payouts from LawCash, the Brooklyn based company confirmed Monday night.
“Yes, we funded them both, yes we funded them in different amounts,” said LawCash general counsel and former City Councilman Lew Fidler. “We have not been contacted by the police, by the DA, by investigators, by anybody.”
Terrell, one of the detectives sued by both men, has been named in more than a dozen lawsuits. He hit back in August, when he filed a notice saying he plans to sue the city for $175 million.
Terrell (photo far left) contends the city doesn’t protect its cops — or the taxpayers — from frivolous lawsuits by attorneys and investigators looking to make a quick buck.
He’s also filed a federal discrimination complaint alleging he’s been sidelined to a desk assignment while other officers remain on full duty despite being accused in lawsuits.