‘Blessed’ to be free after 25 wrong yrs.
Plans suit in gang-tied slaying
A Brooklyn man wants $100 million compensation for the nearly 25 years he spent in prison before a judge tossed his conviction in a savage knife slaying — and he says he was in fact trying to save the stabbing victim’s life.
Christian Pacheco, 42, was imprisoned in the racially-motivated Latin Kings killing of Lemuel Cruz, who died in December 1995 at a Brooklyn club called El Sabor Latino.
Pacheco was accused of slitting Cruz’s throat — but prosecutors in the Brooklyn DA’s Conviction Review Unit discovered it was someone else who delivered the fatal slash.
On one score, Pacheco said, he has no regrets about his actions at the time of Cruz’s death.
“I don’t regret helping him — honestly, I don’t. That’s the kind of person that I am,” Pacheco told reporters Thursday.
“I feel blessed to be free again. And I feel grateful that I was granted my freedom again,” Pacheco said. “It still hasn’t actually hit me fully, you know. I haven’t been able to sleep, but I feel blessed more than anything.
“I’m looking forward. I already met my mom and I seen her and I hugged her and I kissed my grandmother.”
Pacheco knew Cruz, and tried to stop the assault by pulling assailants off the victim, says the lawsuit filed against the State of New York.
Pacheco was stabbed in the back while trying to save Cruz. Cops took him to a hospital, where detectives questioned him about the killing, the suit also says.
“Mr. Pacheco maintained his innocence from minutes after Lemuel Cruz had been killed,” said Derek Sells, who represents Pacheco.
Cruz died because some Latin Kings members thought he’d hit someone in their crew. Witnesses and friends of the victim who testified during the trial said the dark-skinned Latino man was attacked as he exited the bathroom into a dance-floor brawl that was already underway.
“Get the black guy!” people in the crowd yelled, according to witnesses at the trial. The defendants were accused of forcing Cruz out a side door where they kicked, beat, stabbed him and slit his throat.
Pacheco, who was one of four defendants charged with murder in the case, was convicted in a jury trial. He was released from custody Feb. 11.
He said he is looking forward to seeing his 26year-old son, who is stationed with the Navy in San Diego, and meeting his 17month-old granddaughter.
“I don’t know how I’m going to react, to be honest,” he said of the upcoming meetup. “All I can tell you is I’m looking forward to meeting them. And they looking forward to meet me.”
Pacheco is the 28th person to be cleared by the Brooklyn DA’s Conviction Review Unit, which was established in 2014.
Two other defendants in
Cruz’s murder also had their convictions thrown out.
For now, Pacheco is just trying to acclimate to life in 2020. First on his list of adjustments? The smartphone.
“The cell phone — the only thing I know about the cell phone is that I know how to open it and send messages … It’s crazy. That’s one of the things that I’m having a little problem with.”