Deja Vu All Over Again! Dismissed Jury Alternate mouths "Good Luck" to Marcelo Lucero's Confessed Murderer! Is there No Justice for Latinos?

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Shortly after the murder of Marcelo Lucero, Jeff Conroy, the leader of the Caucasian Crew that went "Beaner Hopping" each week in Patchogue, NY, confessed to the police he murdered Marcelo. The police found blood on his pants. The police found the murder knife in murderer Conroy's pants. His friends witnessed the murder and they testified to these facts in a court of law. Then, on the last day of trial, murderer Conroy said, April Fools. I didn't do it. I just pretended I was guilty to cover for my friend that did it. And at least one jury member, an alternate who was dismissed, believed him! UNBELIEVABLE!! Is there no justice for murdered Latinos in our Courts of Law??? We patiently await the jury's decision. And remember, after the crime Conroy said to his friends, "What if I get away with it?"
NY Times Reports:
Jurors Hint at Prosecutors’ Hurdle in L.I. Hate Crime Case
Moments after a judge excused four alternate jurors from the courtroom, one of them did something that would ease the mind of any defense lawyer whose client was on trial for murder: She mouthed the words “good luck” to the defendant. Twelve jurors began deliberating a few minutes after 10 a.m. on Wednesday in the trial of that defendant, Jeffrey Conroy, 19, who is accused of fatally stabbing a Hispanic immigrant, Marcelo Lucero, in November 2008 in Patchogue, N.Y., as part of a hate crime. The four alternate jurors, who have heard testimony from more than two dozen witnesses since March 18, were excused by Justice Robert W. Doyle because the 12 jurors had remained.

The four alternates — three women and one man, all white — illustrated the difficulties that prosecutors have had in proving that Mr. Conroy was guilty of the most serious charge, second-degree murder as a hate crime. Two said they believed that Mr. Conroy was guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. One believed that he was guilty of murder; another was undecided. The alternate who was undecided, Joyce Duck, 62, a retired teacher, was the one who mouthed “good luck” to Mr. Conroy and to his lawyer, William Keahon, as she was leaving the courtroom in State Supreme Court. “My heart goes out to a 19-year-old,” she said. “He doesn’t appear to me as being a dirt-bag kid.” (Is she saying if a White Boy murderer "cleans up" she won't find him guilty of the crimes he has confessed to? Well Mrs. Duck, if it walks like a Duck, Quacks like a Duck, and CONFESSES like a Duck, it IS A DUCK!! HE IS A MURDERER!)

All four alternates seemed to be making up their minds as they spoke with reporters outside the criminal courthouse here. Three of them said they did not believe Mr. Conroy’s testimony, and one, Ms. Duck, said she found some parts believable. Mr. Conroy took the witness stand last week. He testified that he had lied to the police in his five-page written confession, and that Christopher Overton, one of the six other teenagers who was with him that night, stabbed Mr. Lucero. Mr. Conroy said he lied to protect Mr. Overton and took the knife from him after the stabbing. Mr. Overton’s mother and lawyer have denied the accusation.

The alternate who said that Mr. Conroy was guilty of murder — Cathy Tidmarsh, 54, an airline reservations agent — said she did not believe, as Mr. Conroy had testified, that he did not plan on taking part in the fighting. Prosecutors said the seven teenagers had planned to go to Patchogue to look for a Hispanic person to beat up. “He was there,” Ms. Tidmarsh said. “He’s not along for the ride.” (Wow! One Sane Juror)


One of the alternate jurors leaning toward manslaughter — Kosmas Hionidis, 44, a bus dispatcher — said he did not think that the seven young men accused of taking part in the attack intended to kill Mr. Lucero. In order for the jurors to convict Mr. Conroy on the second-degree murder charge, they must find that he intended to kill Mr. Lucero. To convict Mr. Conroy on the first-degree manslaughter charge, they must find that he caused Mr. Lucero’s death while intending to cause him serious physical injury. “I don’t think this was a murder,” Mr. Hionidis said. “Nobody said, ‘We’re going to go kill him.’ ”

The other alternate who believed that Mr. Conroy was guilty of manslaughter, Judith Hallock, 70, a retired public school teacher, said it was clear that Mr. Conroy, not Mr. Overton, stabbed Mr. Lucero. Bloodstains on the blade of the knife that the police found on Mr. Conroy, as well as on two pieces of his clothing, matched the victim’s DNA. “He did it,” Ms. Hallock said. “He made the choice. He carried the knife.” She added: “Excusing him for it is not going to make his life any better. As far as I’m concerned, it’d make a lot of other people’s lives a lot worse.”

The 12 jurors who remained to deliberate asked Justice Doyle for several pieces of evidence. They asked to read Mr. Conroy’s five-page written statement to the police, and were provided copies of it. They also asked for a portion of Nicholas Hausch’s testimony to be read to them. Mr. Hausch, one of the teenagers who was with Mr. Conroy that night, testified against him. The jurors also asked the judge to repeat the legal definitions of some of the charges against Mr. Conroy, including second-degree murder as a hate crime and first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime.