Man convicted in 2014 killing, burning of 18-year-old

Last month, a Palm Beach County circuit judge instantly rejec ted Hiram Gonzalez Morales’ request to throw out his second-degree murder c ase under Flor ida’s controversial “stand your ground” law.

On Thursday, although it took them longer to come to a decision, a jury similarly rejected his self-defense claims in the shooting death of Crestony Colin and convicted him of second-degree murder, arson and tampering with evidence.

The verdicts mean Morales, 46, of Lake Worth, faces up to life in prison when Circuit Judge Krista Marx sentences him on April 13.

Morales was arrested in 2014 shortly after authorities in Broward County discovered Colin’s charred remains in the trunk of a burned-out rental car in a remote area of Weston.

He t o l d pol i c e t hat he didn’t know what happened to Colin, and that if he’d had a hand in his death he would have tried to make up an excuse such as self-defense.

But on the witness stand at his stand your ground hearing last month, he admitted to shooting the 18-year-old sometime drug dealer in the back of the head and said it was because Colin pulled a gun on him and demanded $2,000 from him after they drove to a remote area of western Palm Beach County. Afterward, instead of reporting the shooting, Morales enlisted his half-brother’s help to move Colin’s body and later burned his own legs while setting the car, which Colin’s girlfriend had rented, ablaze.

“Why d i d n ’ t y o u c a l l police?” defense attorney Bernard Fernandez asked his client last month.

“I was scared (expletive) less,” Morales said, sparking a stern warning from Marx to watch his language.

Mo r a l e s t e s t i f i e d l a s t month in hope of avoiding a trial altogether by getting immunity under “stand your ground.”

Enac ted in 2 005 as an expansion of Florida’s Castle Doctrine, the “stand your ground” law authorizes people to meet force with deadly force in their homes, cars or anywhere they feel their lives are in danger without a duty to first try to retreat.

Marx immediately rejected Morales’ request, clearing the way for a trial that began earlier this week. Jurors began deliberating the case Wednesday and returned the verdict just before 11 a.m. Thursday. Prosecutors dropped a related felony gun charge against Morales.