Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was fatally stabbed Nov. 8, 2008 in Patchogue after he and a friend were surrounded by seven teenagers who had gone out looking to attack Latinos, a bias crime that drew national attention to Suffolk County. The teens, who came to be known as the "Patchogue 7," were sentenced to varying amounts of time in prison.

Long Island

ny-marcelolucero

Where blood once stained the concrete pavement, on Sunday, there were scattered pink rose petals and candles at the site of Marcelo Lucero’s killing in Patchogue eight years ago.
Friends, family and residents gathered to commemorate Lucero’s death with a reflective service and a solemn walk to the spot where he was fatally stabbed in what prosecutors called a hate crime. 
Standing in front of where Lucero once lay, his brother, 42-year-old Joselo Lucero, said that the gathering Sunday represented “peace and love.” 
More than 60 people attended the vigil, which Joselo said he holds annually for two reasons: to honor his brother’s memory, and to prevent this kind of violence from happening ever again.
Marcelo was a “fighter, a dreamer, a workaholic” and a dedicated son who always took care of his family, Lucero said. He was an Ecuadorean immigrant who worked in a dry cleaning store to help support his mother, who had cancer. At the age of 37, he was killed by a group of teenagers by a white shingled house on Railroad Avenue in 2008.
“Violence isn’t going to lead anywhere. . . . Everyone is a human being,” Lucero said. 
During the ceremony, which also included a guided meditation and musical session, people read poems and short pieces in both Spanish and English. One person read simply “I wish for peace,” another read an excerpt of one of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches, saying that “darkness cannot drive out darkness.” Attendees pinned colored hearts to their lapels, and gazed at a photo of a youthful Marcelo clad in overalls. 
After the service, the group walked to the site of Marcelo’s death, carrying a yellow banner decorated with a sketch of him and the words “Culture of Peace.” The procession included Village Mayor Paul Pontieri, who said that Marcelo’s killing shook not only the “bones of Patchogue” but all of Long Island. 
Patchogue has a large Latino community that composes nearly 30 percent of the village’s total population of 11,700. The village has one of the largest Ecuadorean communities in the United States, according to the 2010 census.
Lucero was walking with a friend near the Patchogue train station when he was attacked by seven teens looking to assault Hispanic immigrants.
One of the attackers, Jeffrey Conroy, stabbed Lucero, 37, killing him. Conroy is serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted by a jury of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. The other six defendants are serving sentences ranging from 5 to 8 years.
Advocates say that anti-immigrant hostility is still present in this neighborhood.
“It’s important to show that there is unity across racial lines and ethnic lines,” said Patchogue resident Barry Fruchter, 69. “Diversity is here and in many places . . . and there is racist pushback.” 
Patchogue resident Jorge Marca, 43, said that this vigil was critically important for the Latino community this year. By attending the vigil, the Latino community could show politicians like GOP nominee Donald Trump that “we aren’t like what he says,” said his wife, Yolanda Marca, 39. 
Lucero said that he believed in working together to create change, especially in light of divisive immigration discussion raised by the presidential race. He noted that Marcelo’s death falls on Election Day.
“There is a lot of anxiety,” Lucero said. “We as minorities don’t know where we stand right now.”

Suffolk

LIVIGI1107

Memory of Marcelo Lucero, slain immigrant, honored at vigil

Brother: Vigil for Lucero for ‘peace and love’

For some of our politicians, this week is a chance to raise money and to bring the loud, angry presidential campaign to Patchogue, the village where my brother Marcelo and I lived for years. For me, it represents a flashback to the most painful time of my life: Marcelo’s violent death.
On a November night in 2008, a group of seven young men from Patchogue-Medford High School went to the streets of Patchogue looking to indulge in something they considered a sport: beating up Latino immigrants.
That night, they jumped Marcelo, and he died. They all paid for that act with prison terms, including a very long one for the person who stabbed my big brother. My family and I have paid, too, with endless grief. For my mother, that pain ended only with her death last year in Gualaceo, the town in Ecuador where Marcelo and I grew up.
Every November since that hate-filled night, friends and community members have gathered with me for a peaceful vigil at the spot where Marcelo fell. Now, a short distance north of that spot, supporters of the Suffolk County Republican Party will gather at a nightclub for a fundraising event. The guest of honor—in my mind, the guest of dishonor—will be Donald J. Trump. His appearance should serve as a wake-up call for the immigrant community.
Anyone who has been paying attention knows about his anti-immigrant ideas. He wants to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it. He wants to deport all 11 million immigrants here illegally. He wants to bar Muslims from entering the United States.
Obviously, I disagree strongly with that rhetoric, which has led a lot of fearful people in America, worried about the way the country is changing, to express strong support for him. But I don’t blame the Republican presidential frontrunner for picking this spot. I blame John Jay LaValle, the Suffolk County Republican chairman.
I don’t believe I’ve ever met LaValle. But he has been living in Suffolk County his whole life, including recent years, when the county became known for anti-immigrant anger and violence—long before hatred led to Marcelo’s death. He should have known better than to invite someone who speaks so hatefully of immigrants to a fundraiser a short walk away from the site of the fatal attack on my brother.
It’s hard to understand what LaValle was thinking. I don’t know whether he considered the impact on the immigrant community and the people of Patchogue. I’m not sure which is worse: that he didn’t even think about it, or that he considered the pain involved and decided to extend the invitation anyway.
This much is clear, though: LaValle endorsed Trump for president, and Trump agreed to appear at LaValle’s fundraiser. Trump talks a lot about making good deals, and maybe this seems to him like one of those. To me, it feels a little like blood money. Trump’s appearance in that nightclub is helping to sell tickets and raise money for the Suffolk Republican Party. For me, and for Patchogue, it’s a thoughtless reminder of innocent blood spilled.
It would have been helpful if LaValle had recognized the hurt that this event is causing and decided to change the venue. But it’s too late for that. My way of responding is this: I won’t carry picket signs and stand outside the nightclub to confront anyone. I’ll show up, as I have so often in the past, stand at the site I consider sacred to Marcelo’s memory, and remember him with a prayerful, peaceful vigil—accompanied by many compassionate people. 
Somehow, we’ll get past this, and I truly hope LaValle will learn something from it.
Joselo Lucero is the outreach coordinator for the Hagedorn Foundation of Port Washington.

Opinion

Commentary

WEBLUCERO0413

Donald Trump’s LI visit dishonors my brother’s memory

Opinion: Trump’s LI visit dishonors my brother's memory

WEBLUCERO0413_XX6_WEB / mg

Paul Pontieri, the mayor of Patchogue, was lucky to get his cellphone back so fast after performing a wedding Thursday at Lombardi’s On the Bay. 
It was picked up by a young man who found it lying near the water. 
“Wait, are you telling me the mayor of Patchogue lost his phone on the day Donald Trump is going to be here,” the young man asked a stranger who helped get the phone back to its owner.
Pontieri was going to need the device. GOP presidential candidate Trump, who spoke to a Republican fundraiser Thursday night, wants to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants. And Patchogue is the place that put Long Island in the international spotlight after a round of “beaner hopping” by a multiracial group of teens in 2008 ended with the fatal stabbing of Ecuadoran immigrant Marcelo Lucero.
Lucero had used his belt buckle to fight back. A trail of blood marked his movements around a parking lot, across a grass median, and, as the teens fled, to the side of a nearby house on Railroad Avenue, where he died.
On Thursday afternoon, Rabbi Steven Moss told a vigil near the house that, according to Jewish tradition, the soul remains where blood is spilled. “That makes this a sacred place,” he said.
At that point, the vigil was larger than the crowd of anti-Trump protesters gathered further up Railroad Avenue. But the largest crowd of the day, excited Trump supporters, were lined up outside of an old warehouse, now called The Emporium, futher north on Railroad Avenue, where it crossed with Main Street.
One-fifth of a mile — 350 steps — separated the Emporium at the top of Railroad Avenue from the vigil going on below. Those praying and singing at the vigil couldn’t hear those chanting at the protest. Those at the protest couldn’t hear those cheering Trump at the fundraiser. Those at the fundraiser couldn’t see the group observing 15 minutes of silence at The Congregational Church of Christ nearby. And they couldn’t see the signs being waved by Trump supporters on West Avenue.
The day, in short, went just as security — which included sharpshooters atop the warehouse and a circling Suffolk police helicopter — had planned. Suffolk police would say later that there had been no arrests. 
In the years before Lucero’s stabbing, Hispanic day laborers were abducted in Farmingville and beaten. In the years after, the U.S. Justice Department would initiate oversight of the county’s police department.
Steve Levy, a Republican who as county executive in 2008 took criticism for statements on illegal immigration, wrote a column last week on the Greater Patchogue news websit, in which he said he did not intend to vote for Trump.
“Those of us who have been shouting into deaf ears to get our immigration laws enforced have found Trump to be quite a conundrum,” Levy wrote. “On the one hand, we finally have a national candidate who is speaking out forcefully about the need to secure our border ... Yet, there was no need for Trump to vilify the average illegal immigrant as being a predator. The overwhelming majority are here just to improve their standard of living. Yet, that’s not an excuse for them to cut in line of the 4 million folks waiting to get in the right way.”
Each year, on the anniversary of Lucero’s death, there’s been a vigil near where he died on Railroad Avenue. And each year, it’s been well attended by local residents.
“This immigration issue is a couple of levels above me,” Pontieri said in an interview last week. “Down where I am, the task is keeping our community together.”

Columnists

Joye Brown

LIJOYE0417

Marcelo Lucero killing lives on in Patchogue as a memory

Brown: Memory of Lucero killing lives on in Patchogue

IMG75FO_WEB

Joselo Lucero knelt and lit a candle Sunday next to a white wooden post in front of a house in Patchogue, the spot where his brother, Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero, was fatally stabbed seven years ago.
"This is the spot of a tragedy. This is also the spot where we have started a movement," Lucero told about 85 people, who had walked together a third of a mile past newly built town houses from a nearby theater. "This is a movement of peace, a movement of tolerance."
Students, activists and religious leaders gathered to mark the anniversary of the 2008 slaying of Marcelo Lucero, 37, who was attacked by seven youths.
A packed and diverse audience at the Plaza Cinema and Media Arts Center in Patchogue listened as students read essays, sang songs and screened short films about diversity and immigration. The students came from the Patchogue-Medford and Longwood school districts, a mosque in Selden and B'nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale.
The attack helped raise public awareness about the treatment of immigrants in Patchogue and Suffolk County, leaders of the memorial event said.
Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri said he remembers sitting in his backyard, reading the newspaper seven years ago, when he got the call about the attack on Lucero.
"I look at how this has affected the community," he said. The mayor added it unfortunately took Lucero's death "to bring us together."
Lucero was walking with a friend near the Patchogue train station when he was attacked by seven teens looking to assault Hispanic immigrants.
One attacker, Jeffrey Conroy, stabbed Lucero, killing him. Conroy is serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted by a jury of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. The other six defendants were sentenced from 5 to 8 years.
The memorial is organized by an informal group of people who met in the wake of the attack.
Lisa Votino-Tarrant, who first covered the story as a blogger, said on every anniversary, she wakes up and worries no one will show.
"But we have a full house," she noted. 
She said she will continue to help organize the event "as long as people care." 
Milton Yanza, an immigrant who lives in Patchogue, went to school with Marcelo in Ecuador. He said the attack marked a turning point for the Suffolk village. 
"After that, the community changed. There are more events like this, with people talking about peace," he said.

LILUCE09

Anniversary of Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero's slaying in Patchogue is marked

Hate crime victim remembered on LI

Hate crime victim Marcelo Lucero remembered

Newsday

A panel of three federal judges has refused to reinstate a $40 million civil rights lawsuit filed by the family of Marcelo Lucero, killed five years ago in Patchogue by a pack of youths targeting Hispanics. 
 Lucero's family had appealed last year's decision by U.S. District Judge Leonard Wexler to toss out the suit, which accused Suffolk County and the police department of an "indifferent and unconstitutional failure" to protect immigrants. 
 The process server hired by the estate's attorneys had mistakenly served a state court building, not the county clerk as required by law, and Wexler declined to extend the time limit to fix that problem. 
 In agreeing with Wexler, the three judges from the Second U.S. Circuit Court ruled estate administrator Luis Almonte had not given a "reasonable excuse for his inaction and delay" in serving papers. 
 While Almonte argued that it was a simple mistake by the process server, he knew by December 2011 about the problem and didn't ask for more time until almost a year later, after the case had been closed, the judicial panel wrote. 
 A county spokeswoman acknowledged the court's decision but offered no additional comment. 
 Almonte could not be reached Monday night, but the family's attorney, Frederick K. Brewington, called the decision disappointing, and said, "it does not change the failures of Suffolk County in protecting Hispanic members of its community." 
 Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant, was walking with a friend when he was attacked by seven teens looking to assault Hispanic immigrants. 
 One of the attackers, Jeffrey Conroy, stabbed Lucero, 37, killing him. Conroy is serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted by a jury of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. The other six defendants are serving sentences ranging from 5 to 8 years.

LILUCE27

Court won't reinstate Marcelo Lucero family's lawsuit

Levy and Lucero family

Eugenio Idrovo said he's seen some changes in the way immigrants are treated on <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> since Marcelo <a href="/topics//Lucero">Lucero</a> was killed in <a href="/topics//Patchogue,_NY">Patchogue</a> four years ago, but said it's still not easy for those who are new to the country. 
 Idrovo, 37, of <a href="/topics//Bay_Shore,_NY">Bay Shore</a>, was a friend of <a href="/topics//Lucero">Lucero</a>. They hailed from the same Ecuadorean hometown of Gualaceo and were roommates at one point. <a href="/topics//Lucero">Lucero</a>, 37, was beaten and fatally stabbed on Nov. 8, 2008, by seven young men who authorities said had targeted Latino immigrants. 
 Six of them are serving sentences ranging from 5 to 8 years while <a href="/topics//Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a>, convicted in <a href="/topics//Lucero">Lucero</a>'s stabbing, is serving a 25-year sentence. 
 Idrovo said there are signs that residents in <a href="/topics//Patchogue,_NY">Patchogue</a> and other <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> communities are more open to Latino immigrants than four years ago. More immigrants are active in community affairs, particularly in <a href="/topics//Patchogue,_NY">Patchogue</a>, and the streets feel less threatening, he said. But it's still not an easy transition from <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a> to <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>, Idrovo said. 
 "We come from a country that's beautiful but there is no money, there are little prospects for jobs and that's why many come here," he said in Spanish. "Maybe it would be different if we all spoke the same language. There are times when I want to go back, but then there are other times when I won't consider it." 
 Idrovo was one of nearly a hundred immigrant supporters to attend an annual vigil in memory of Lucero Sunday at the United Methodist Church in <a href="/topics//Patchogue,_NY">Patchogue</a>. 
 Among those in attendance were Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri, Sen. <a href="/topics//Lee_Zeldin">Lee Zeldin</a> and <a href="/topics//Brookhaven,_NY">Brookhaven</a> Town Supervisor-elect Edward Romaine, who is scheduled to be sworn in Monday. 
 Romaine, a former <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County legislator, said Lucero's killing struck a chord and made people re-examine their attitudes and perceptions of the immigrant community. He said the slaying also made local politicians think about how they addressed the immigration debate. 
 "You can disagree on policy and approaches but you debate the idea," Romaine said. "You don't demonize the people." 
 And that's exactly why Joselo Lucero, the victim's brother, continues to honor his brother's memory each year with a vigil. 
 During the service inside the church, Lucero, now an immigrant-rights advocate, told the group that when his brother was killed, the tragedy affected not only his family but also the families of the men involved in his death. 
 "It's something we are never going to forget, every single November," Lucero said. "The community learned something that day. They learned that everyone deserves respect."

LILUCE26

lucero mother - cropped

A federal judge has thrown out a $40-million lawsuit against <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County and its police department in connection with the 2008 hate-crime killing of Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo <a href="/topics/Lucero">Lucero</a>.
The order from U.S. District Judge Leonard D. Wexler, issued last Thursday but dated that Monday, affirms a magistrate's earlier finding that county and police officials were not properly notified of the lawsuit.
Joselo Lucero, the victim's brother, said Monday that his family is upset that the case was closed before their claims could be heard in court. He vowed to seek "other options."
"Honestly, I have no words to react to this decision," Lucero, 37, said. "If we have to take these documents to a higher court to have the case heard, we are going to do it."
Vanessa Baird-Streeter, a spokeswoman for Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, said in a statement that officials are "pleased" with the ruling, adding that it "supports our continuous contention that the County was not served properly."
The lawsuit stems from an attack in <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> in November 2008 that put a spotlight on increasing tensions involving the county's growing immigrant population.
Marcelo Lucero had been walking with a friend when he was attacked by seven teenagers looking to assault Hispanic immigrants. One of the attackers, <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a>, stabbed Lucero, 37, killing him.
<a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> is serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted by a jury of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. The other six defendants are serving sentences ranging from 5 to 8 years. A <a href="/topics/U.S._Department_of_Justice">U.S. Department of Justice</a> Civil Rights Division inquiry into Suffolk County policing is ongoing. A civil lawsuit filed by the Lucero estate against the teens and their parents is pending in state court.
The federal suit, filed in 2010, claimed Lucero's murder was the result of county government and police department "indifferent and unconstitutional failure" to provide equal protection for immigrants. Claims against the Patchogue and <a href="/topics/Brookhaven%2C_NY">Brookhaven</a> were dismissed in November. 
In ruling the case should be "closed," Wexler agreed with a May 16 magistrate judge's conclusion that process server Richard Blum, hired by the Lucero estate's lawyers, delivered the summons and complaint to the wrong place -- a state criminal court building rather than the county clerk's office.
"In view of the fact that the R&amp;R [report and recommendation] holds that the county Defendants were never properly served, no Defendants remain herein," Wexler wrote, directing court officials "to close the file in this matter."
Wexler also wrote in his order that the Lucero estate -- represented by attorneys Kevin Faga of White Plains and Frederick Brewington of <a href="/topics/Hempstead%2C_NY">Hempstead</a> -- did not object to the magistrate report's findings within the 14 days to register objections. A three-year statute of limitations has expired, preventing the lawsuit from being refiled.
Faga did not comment, while Brewington said he filed a request with the court and that he is "anxiously awaiting a response." 
In a letter filed on June 14, Brewington asks the judge to use his discretion to allow more time to serve the county and put the case back on the court's calendar.
A case with such serious allegations about government and policing shouldn't just go away, some Latino advocates said.
"The Lucero family and the people of <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a> deserve to have a hearing on this very serious civil rights issue," said David Mejias, president of the Long Island Hispanic Bar Association. "To deny that on a technicality is an injustice."

LILUCE19

Judge dismisses $40M Marcelo Lucero suit

As his family and dozens of friends sniffed back tears, the <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a> man who testified that <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a> fatally stabbed Ecuadorean immigrant <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a> in Patchogue was sentenced Thursday to 5 years in prison for his role in the 2008 hate attack. 
Nicholas Hausch, 19, kissed his girlfriend and hugged friends before he stood in front of State Supreme Court Justice <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert W. Doyle</a> to be sentenced in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court. When the judge asked whether he wanted to make a statement, Hausch shook his head no. 
Hausch, the first of seven teens charged in the attack to admit his role in Lucero's death, was the last to be sentenced. 
District Attorney <a href="/topics/Thomas_Spota">Thomas Spota</a> said Hausch's prison sentence "brings to an end a very sad, tragic saga in the history of <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County." 
Lucero's death on Nov. 9, 2008, a few hours after he was stabbed by <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey</a> <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> near the Patchogue train station, reverberated around the world. It prompted an ongoing federal review of <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a>'s handling of crimes reported by Latinos. 
When he testified in April, Hausch said he and the others went to Patchogue in search of Hispanics to attack. 
<a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>, 19, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, is serving 25 years in prison for stabbing Lucero, 37, of Patchogue. He was convicted of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime and other charges. 
In court yesterday, Lucero's brother, Joselo Lucero, 37, of Patchogue, asked Hausch for a favor: "Go to the schools and tell people the story of what happened to you," Lucero said. 
He told reporters outside court that he agreed with Hausch's sentence. 
"Today, I finished," he said. "I've been here to the end. I've seen everyone get exactly what they deserve." 
Hausch pleaded guilty last November to first-degree gang assault and fourth-degree conspiracy for his role in the attack on Lucero. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime in connection with attacks on two other Hispanic men. <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Doyle</a> had promised him a sentence of between 5 and 25 years in prison. 
Hausch's attorney, Jason Bassett of <a href="/topics/Central_Islip%2C_NY">Central Islip</a>, said in court that Hausch had been punched by an unknown assailant in "direct retaliation" for testifying against <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>. 
<a href="/topics/Thomas_Spota">Spota</a> confirmed outside court that there is an investigation into the alleged attack on Hausch. "It clearly was the result of his testifying in court," <a href="/topics/Thomas_Spota">Spota</a> said. <a href="/topics/Thomas_Spota">Spota</a> declined to say whether arrests are imminent. 
Bassett said outside court that Hausch lost several teeth in that incident. 
The district attorney credited Hausch for being "the only defendant who cooperated" with prosecutors. 
"He told the world what happened," <a href="/topics/Thomas_Spota">Spota</a> said. "This truly was a hate crime. That is what they intended. . . . If it was not for Mr. Hausch, we may have never known what their intentions were."

LILUCE15

Last attacker sentenced for role in Lucero killing

Kevin Shea, the Medford man who admitted punching <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a> in the face before the Ecuadorean immigrant was fatally stabbed in Patchogue nearly two years ago, was sentenced to 8 years in prison Wednesday in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court. 
When Shea, 18, pleaded guilty in February, State Supreme Court Justice <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert W. Doyle</a> told him that he could face up to 10 years in prison. <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Doyle</a> rejected Assistant District Attorney Megan O'Donnell's call for a 15-year sentence. 
Before he was sentenced, Shea apologized to Lucero's family. "This crime never should have happened," he said. Lucero's brother, Joselo, was in court. 
Of the seven men originally accused in the hate-crime attack, Shea was the next to last to be sentenced. He and the other men, all in their teens, surrounded Lucero, 37, of Patchogue, and his friend, Angel Loja, near the Patchogue train station on Nov. 8, 2008. Prosecutors said the men went there in search of Hispanics to attack. 
The men shouted ethnic slurs at Lucero and Loja, of Patchogue, before <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a> stabbed Lucero with a knife. 
Lucero died early the next morning at <a href="/topics/Brookhaven_Memorial_Hospital_Medical_Center">Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center</a> in <a href="/topics/East_Patchogue%2C_NY">East Patchogue</a>. His death shone a spotlight on ethnic tensions in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County and helped prompt an ongoing federal probe of <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> police investigations of crimes against Hispanics. 
<a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>, 19, of Medford, is serving a 25-year sentence at an upstate prison. He was convicted in April of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime and other charges. 
Shea pleaded guilty in February to first-degree gang assault, second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime and fourth-degree conspiracy. In addition to participating in the attack on Lucero, he admitted involvement in assaults on Loja and Hector Sierra, of Patchogue, on the night of the Lucero attack, and an assault on Octavio Cordova, of Medford, at a park on Nov. 3, 2008. 
O'Donnell said Shea pretended to have a gun and called on the other six men to surround Lucero and Loja. 
"Kevin Shea is the second most culpable" member of the group that assaulted Lucero, O'Donnell said. 
Shea's attorney, Steven Politi of <a href="/topics/Central_Islip%2C_NY">Central Islip</a>, said Shea has taken anger management courses while in jail. 
Joselo Lucero told reporters he did not disagree with Shea's sentence. 
"We respect the judge's decision, and there's nothing we can do about it," Lucero said. "This nightmare will be over soon, and that's what I'm looking forward to." 
Shea's father and other family left the courthouse Wednesday without speaking to reporters. 
Four other men were sentenced Aug. 25 for their roles. 
Jose Pacheco, 19, of <a href="/topics/East_Patchogue%2C_NY">East Patchogue</a>, <a href="/topics/Jordan">Jordan</a> Dasch, 19, of Medford, and Anthony Hartford, 19, of Medford, each was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Christopher Overton, 18, of <a href="/topics/East_Patchogue%2C_NY">East Patchogue</a>, was sentenced to 6 years in prison. 
The last man involved in the attack, Nicholas Hausch, 18, of Medford, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 14. He pleaded guilty last year to first-degree gang assault, second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime and fourth-degree conspiracy. 
<a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Doyle</a> said he would sentence Hausch to between 5 and 25 years in prison. Hausch is free on bail until he is sentenced.

LISHEA02

Medford man gets 8 years in Patchogue hate-crime attack

Kevin Shea

As each of four teenagers was sentenced Wednesday to several years in prison for the 2008 hate crime attack on <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a> in <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a>, three of them offered apologies to the family of the slain Ecuadorean immigrant.
Jose Pacheco, Anthony Hartford and <a href="/topics/Jordan">Jordan</a> Dasch spoke briefly and in hushed tones before they received their sentences from State Supreme Court Justice <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert W. Doyle</a> in a proceeding that lasted more than an hour in the <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County Courthouse in <a href="/topics/Riverhead%2C_NY">Riverhead</a>. A fourth teen, Christopher Overton, declined to speak in court.
Pacheco, 19, of <a href="/topics/East_Patchogue%2C_NY">East Patchogue</a>, said the assault was "horrible and unjustifiable."
"I shouldn't ask for mercy," he said. "God knows what I did was wrong."
Lucero, 37, of <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a>, was fatally stabbed Nov. 8, 2008, near the Patchogue train station after he and a friend were surrounded by seven teenagers who had gone out looking to attack Latinos, a bias crime that drew national attention to <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County.
<a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Doyle</a> sentenced Pacheco, along with Hartford and Dasch, both 19 and of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, to 7-year sentences for attacking Lucero. Overton, 18, of <a href="/topics/East_Patchogue%2C_NY">East Patchogue</a>, was sentenced to 6 years. <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Doyle</a> did not explain why he gave Overton a shorter sentence.
Overton also was sentenced yesterday to 2 to 6 years in prison for his role in a 2007 home invasion that ended with the death of Carlton Shaw of East Patchogue. The sentence will run concurrently with his sentence for the Lucero attack.
The four teens had pleaded guilty to first-degree gang assault, second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime and other charges for a string of attacks on Hispanic men that culminated in Lucero's death.
<a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a>, 19, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, is serving a 25-year sentence in an upstate prison for stabbing Lucero. <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> was convicted in April of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime and other charges.
Speaking in court before Doyle sentenced the teens, Lucero's brother, Joselo, called for an end to violence.
"I have so much anger in my heart, sometimes I want to explode," he said. "But that is not the right thing. The right thing is to bring peace."
Lucero declined to comment on the sentences afterward.
The teens showed little reaction as the sentences were pronounced. Their relatives and supporters declined to speak to reporters as they left court.
Denise Pacheco wiped tears from under the sunglasses she wore throughout her son's hearing and pulled the brim of a straw hat over her face as she left the building.
Assistant District Attorney Megan O'Donnell called the crimes "unprovoked and senseless."
Attorneys for some of the teens said they are not racists. Hartford's attorney, Laurence Silverman of <a href="/topics/Dix_Hills%2C_NY">Dix Hills</a>, blamed the attack on "stupid, drunken behavior" and said Hartford believed Latinos "come here and take away people's jobs."
Pacheco's attorney, Christopher Brocato of <a href="/topics/Central_Islip%2C_NY">Central Islip</a>, said Pacheco, who is part Puerto Rican and part African-American, "is deeply ashamed."
"He's aware he's become almost a pariah among his own people," Brocato said.
Paul Gianelli of East Patchogue, Overton's attorney, said of his client's sentence: "Under the circumstances, I'm not totally dissatisfied."
Two other teens who pleaded guilty in connection with the assault on Lucero are to be sentenced later this year.
With Mitchell Freedman and Andrew Strickler

Four sentenced in Lucero hate-crime attack

Jordan Dasch

While <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a> settles in at a prison six hours north of his <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a> home, his father and a Patchogue pastor are raising money to help him buy supplies while behind bars. 
Conroy, 19, who was sentenced in May to 25 years in prison for the 2008 hate-crime slaying of Ecuadorean immigrant <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a>, last week was transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility, in upstate Dannemora. There he is allowed to buy clothes, food, soap and other items at the commissary and from catalogs. 
Robert Conroy said Monday he wanted to send T-shirts and sneakers to his son, who he said now wants to study law and become a criminal defense attorney. But with care packages to inmates limited by prison rules, he asked about 40 friends last week to donate money so his son can make more purchases. 
"Any parent would do that for his child," Robert Conroy, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, said Monday. "He tells me what he wants and I make sure he gets it." 
He was joined in the effort by the Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter, pastor of the Congregational Church of Patchogue, who asked about 20 to 30 friends and organizations, including members of his church and other religious groups, to make donations. 
Wolter, whose church hosted Lucero's funeral, said he views the fundraising effort as part of the reconciliation he believes must be done to close racial and ethnic fissures exposed by Lucero's death. 
"<a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a> indeed now has become a convicted criminal, but he remains a human being," Wolter said. "I couldn't find a really good reason to say no to a request like that." 
Conroy and Wolter said they have received positive responses, but no contributions so far. 
Lucero's brother, Joselo Lucero, declined to comment. 
But word of the fundraising disturbed the Rev. Allan <a href="/topics/Allan_Ramirez">Ramirez</a>, pastor of the Brookville Reformed Church and an adviser to the Lucero family. 
"Jeffrey Conroy was sent to jail, not the Hilton, and . . . having to live a sparse life is what his punishment is about," Ramirez said Monday. 
Jeffrey Conroy was convicted April 19 of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime for fatally stabbing Lucero. He was the first person to be convicted of a hate crime for a death in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a>. With good behavior, Conroy could be released from prison in about 20 years. 
After Conroy was sentenced to prison, his family and attorney tried to have a swastika tattoo removed from his upper thigh. But the tattoo, which <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> prosecutors referred to at his trial to show Conroy held an animosity toward minorities, remains because he had no guarantee it could be removed, Robert Conroy said. 
He said his trips to see his son will be curtailed now that he is incarcerated a few miles from the Canadian border. After seeing his son weekly at Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, about 2 1/2 hours from Medford, Robert Conroy said he plans monthly trips to Clinton, about a 6 1/2-hour drive. 
"Obviously, I want to see him but I know he has to adapt to a different life now," Robert Conroy said. 
While in prison, Conroy hopes to obtain a college degree, his father said, adding that his son, who had planned to be a coach and gym teacher, has changed his career plans. 
"He wants to become a criminal defense attorney," Robert Conroy said. "I'm kind of proud that he wants to do something like that."Clinton Correctional Facility 
General: Maximum-security prison 
Where: Dannemora, Clinton County 
Built: 1844 
Current population: 2,790 
General description: For inmates 16 years old and older. 
Travel time from Medford: 6 hours, 28 minutes. 
Travel distance from Medford: 365 miles 
Famous inmates 
Joel Rifkin: Serial killer from <a href="/topics/East_Meadow%2C_NY">East Meadow</a> serving 203-year sentence. 
<a href="/topics/Martin_Tankleff">Martin Tankleff</a>: Former Belle Terre man served 17 years for murdering his parents; released in 2007 after conviction overturned. 
Robert Shulman: <a href="/topics/Hicksville%2C_NY">Hicksville</a> serial killer; died in Albany hospital in 2006. 
Tupac Shakur: Rap legend served eight months in 1995 for sexual abuse. Died after 1996 shooting in <a href="/topics/Las_Vegas">Las Vegas</a>. 
<a href="/topics/Robert_Chambers">Robert Chambers</a>. "Preppy Killer" served about two years in Clinton for 1986 murder of Jennifer Levin before being transferred to another prison. Released from Auburn Correctional Facility in 2003. 
Work 
State inmates are required to work while in prison. They are paid 16 cents an hour and work about 6 hours a day in jobs such as laundry, maintenance, food delivery and educational assistance. An inmate's pay is deposited directlyinto his or herprison bank account; inmates cannot carry cash or coins. 
Packages 
In Clinton and some other state prisons, inmates can receive two food packages per year from family and friends. Other prisons allow two food packages a month. 
Purchases 
Inmates are limited to purchases up to $50 every two weeks at the prison commissary. They also 
may buy clothes and other items from approved catalogs. 
Sample commissary items 
Deodorant soap: 34 cents 
15 oz. dandruff shampoo: 75 cents 
Poker cards: 90 cents 
Vitamins: $1.14 
11.5 oz. orange juice: 44 cents 
15 oz. black beans: 54 cents 
12 oz. corned beef: $1.95 
4 oz. calamari: 64 cents 
16 oz. spaghetti: 62 cents 
4 oz. instant coffee: $1.07 
18 oz. peanut butter: $1.32 
24 oz. iced tea mix: $1.67 
English muffins: $1 
12 oz. chocolate chip cookies: 93 cents 
Microwave popcorn: 27 cents Ice cream sandwich: 23 cents 
Root beer: 31 cents 
- Carl MacGowanSOURCES: <a href="/topics/New_York%2C_NY">NEW YORK</a> STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MAPQUEST.COM.

LICONR06

Conroy settles in at prison, as dad, pastor raise funds

Conroy in jail

In a tumultuous conclusion to a court case that brought scrutiny to the state of ethnic relations in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County, Jeffrey Conroy Wednesday was sentenced in <a href="/topics/Riverhead%2C_NY">Riverhead</a> to the maximum 25 years in prison for the 2008 stabbing death of an Ecuadorean immigrant.
Saying the evidence against the <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a> teenager was overwhelming and calling the crime he committed "troublesome," State Supreme Court Justice <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert W. Doyle</a> handed out the strongest sentence he could to Conroy for killing Marcelo <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a> in November 2008 near the <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> train station.
Conroy, 19, of Medford, was sentenced to 25 years for both first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime and gang assault. The sentences will run concurrently. The earliest Conroy could be released from prison is 2030.
 
International attention
The sentencing capped a case that drew international media coverage, outrage from immigrant groups that assailed County Executive <a href="/topics/Steve_Levy">Steve Levy</a> and that prompted a Department of Justice probe, which is ongoing, into whether Suffolk police adequately investigate reports of crimes against Latinos.
Of the seven teenagers initially charged in the attack on Lucero, Anthony Hartford, 18, of Medford, is the only one yet to go on trial. Hartford is scheduled to return to court June 2, his attorney said. Hartford has pleaded not guilty to gang assault, conspiracy and other charges.
Before <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Doyle</a> announced his sentence, Conroy apologized to the Lucero family.
"I'm really sorry for what happened to Mr. Lucero," Conroy said. "I feel really bad for what the Lucero family is going through right now. Every day I wish it didn't happen."
Conroy was the first person convicted of a hate crime in Suffolk County in a case in which a person died, according to Spota's office.
"It is important that justice is being served to ensure that there is a forceful deterrent against this horrific type of crime ever happening again in our region," <a href="/topics/Steve_Levy">Levy</a> said.
Conroy will begin his sentence at Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill for four to six weeks of evaluations and tests to determine where he will be incarcerated, a prison spokeswoman said.
 
Father shouts protest
As Doyle finished sentencing his son, Robert Conroy bolted from his seat and was quickly surrounded by court officers.
"This is mercy, for crying out loud?" he shouted.
Robert Conroy punched a door as court officers ushered him out. He sat in a room outside the courtroom for about 20 minutes before leaving the courthouse with his family.
"I'm not saying nothing," Conroy said. "Let's go."
Hours later, at his home, a subdued Conroy said he had been shocked by the sentence and said it was "very unfair."
"I never expected the maximum," he said, saying his son was "a good kid" who had been made into a "poster boy" for an "international story."
He said his son had received the maximum because of media attention to the case. "The DAs and judges and everybody, all these politicians were boxed into it," he said.
Speaking in court, Marcelo Lucero's brother, Joselo Lucero, said he shaved his head to look more like his slain sibling. "I don't want someone in the streets hunting down someone because they look different," Lucero said. "I think the change, it has to start today."
The sentence prompted a long-distance war of words between Conroy's attorney, William Keahon of <a href="/topics/Hauppauge%2C_NY">Hauppauge</a>, and Levy, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
After the sentencing, Keahon said Levy's statements about illegal immigration have "created an atmosphere of hate toward young men and women that come to this country and this county to do jobs no one else will do. . . . I would vote for Mr. Lucero's brother for governor before I would vote for Steve Levy."
Said Levy: "Mr. Conroy has been appropriately punished and Mr. Keahon's comments are as absurd and desperate as his courtroom antics."
 
Letters sought leniency
Before Doyle issued his sentence, Keahon read some of the more than 100 letters he said were delivered to Doyle asking for leniency for Conroy. One letter was from Conroy's girlfriend, Pamela Suarez, a Latina who said Conroy learned to speak Spanish.
"I believe he deserved a second chance to live his life and all the wonderful things it has to offer," Suarez wrote.
Two Suffolk officials - Legis. Jack Eddington (I-Medford) and his wife, <a href="/topics/Brookhaven%2C_NY">Brookhaven</a> Town Clerk <a href="/topics/Patricia_Eddington">Patricia Eddington</a> - sent separate letters on behalf of Conroy. The couple wrote that they did not ask for leniency, but only talked about their connection to the Conroy family.
"I don't believe in taking one child's life for another," said Patricia Eddington. "I don't think it's appropriate."
In asking Doyle to sentence Conroy to the maximum, Assistant District Attorney Megan O'Donnell said school disciplinary records show Conroy was involved in 24 incidents and had been suspended or held in detention for infractions ranging from tardiness to insubordination.
With Keith Herbert and Rick Brand

LICONR27

Jeffrey Conroy gets 25 years in hate-crime killing

<a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey</a> <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> has a strong gut reaction to the now-famous photograph of himself, handcuffed and walking ramrod-straight in his white jumpsuit, his ice-blue eyes staring straight ahead. 
"That's not me," said the 19-year-old <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a> man in his first interview since he was arrested in November 2008 on charges that he stabbed and killed Ecuadorean immigrant <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a>, 37, of <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a>, after, prosecutors say, he and six other teens went on a mission to beat up Hispanics. 
"I am not a racist. I am not a violent person. I am not a white supremacist," said <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>, who has a swastika tattoo on one thigh that he said he got "stupidly" on a dare. "People made a judgment about me." 
Last week, a <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County jury convicted <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime in <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>'s death, and second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime in attacks on three other Hispanic men. He faces 8 to 25 years in prison when State Supreme Court Justice <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert W. Doyle</a> sentences him May 26. 
His lawyer, William Keahon of <a href="/topics/Hauppauge%2C_NY">Hauppauge</a>, would not let him answer questions about the night of the crime - details about which <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> testified in some detail during his monthlong trial. Keahon says <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> plans to appeal his conviction. 
The former athlete spoke instead about his upbringing in <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, his feelings about minorities, and what he says are feelings of sympathy for <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>'s family. 
"I'm sorry for what happened to them," said <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>, who took the stand and denied he had stabbed <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>, saying another teenager was the killer. "I wish he wasn't dead." 
Jurors said after the verdict that they did not find <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>'s testimony believable, though they also did not believe that he intended to kill <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>. 
&nbsp; 
Urged to display fun-loving side 
Throughout the hourlong interview Friday afternoon in the <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County jail, <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>, dressed in a white button-down shirt and a black suit jacket, remained stoic, often looking down at the table in front of him or at a wall. He smiled rarely, usually after being prodded by Keahon, who urged him to display the fun-loving side of his personality that <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> said friends knew in school. 
In a separate interview, <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>'s parents, Lori and <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert</a>, said their son is a joker who would wrestle playfully with his mom and who was the "life of the party" whenever the extended family got together. Of his son's serious demeanor now, <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert</a> <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> says, "Look what he's been through in the last 18 months. He doesn't know who to trust." 
In the photos taken of <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> just after he was arrested, his father said his son had just had his head shaved for wrestling season. He also was exhausted and afraid, he said. 
"I'm outgoing. I have a good time," <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey</a> <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> said when asked about his personality. "People say I look angry. I guess I just look angry." 
Growing up in a home of six children, <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> said his parents taught him to treat everyone equally. Conroy said he has a half-sister who is Puerto Rican and a Colombian step-grandmother, and he is close with both of them. He said his girlfriend of five years, a freshman at <a href="/topics/Stony_Brook_University">Stony Brook University</a> who has stood by him since his arrest, is half Puerto Rican and half Portuguese. 
"There is no racism in my family," Conroy said. "None at all." 
Conroy's father, who runs a nonprofit youth sports league, and who says his eldest son spent much of his time helping him coach children and repair equipment, said he tried to show his children by example how to treat people different from themselves. He said when he learned about the swastika tattoo from a television report after his son's arrest, he was stunned. "I don't think he knows what the true meaning of it is," he said. His mother added, "As soon as he gets out, he's having it removed." 
"It was just a joke, but it's embarrassing," Conroy said Friday, looking down at his hands folded in his lap. "It doesn't mean anything to me." 
He said he got the tattoo after he and a friend saw the <a href="/topics/HBO">HBO</a> series "Oz" in which several prisoners have them. 
&nbsp; 
Says had friends of all races 
At <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a>-<a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a> High School, Conroy said he was friends with kids of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. But he admitted there were racists in his peer group. 
"I don't like anyone picking on anyone, so that kind of bothered me," he said. He said generally he "didn't get involved" in racial conflicts, though he said there have been occasions when he has defended people being bullied. 
Both Conroy and his parents say they were truly taken aback when he was convicted of manslaughter. "I thought he was coming home with us," <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert</a> Conroy said, looking into the distance, his breathing labored. 
Still, Lori Conroy, who is a Sunday school teacher and a born-again Christian, said she and her church group pray often for <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a> and the family he left behind. 
The Conroys say they are saddened that the Luceros will never see <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo</a> again. While they will at least see their son in prison, they say losing him in their daily life helps them understand the Luceros' loss. 
"[Visiting him in jail] is very unsatisfying, but afterward I do get a feeling of relief that I saw my son," <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert</a> Conroy said. 
Conroy, who is in protective custody in jail because of the white supremacist allegations, spends 22 hours a day alone in his cell, with one hour allowed outside it for showering and phone calls, and another hour allowed for exercise. 
During the time in his cell - he can spread his arms and touch both walls - he said he often thinks about the future. 
Before his arrest, he said, he dreamed of getting a college lacrosse scholarship, marrying his girlfriend and becoming a gym teacher. Now, even as he awaits what is likely to be a lengthy prison sentence, he says he still wishes for all that. 
"I'm still hanging on to those things," he said.

LICONR25

Jeffrey Conroy sits for 1st interview since arrest

As the jury forewoman pronounced the verdict for first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime - the first of six times the word "guilty" sounded yesterday in a packed <a href="/topics/Riverhead%2C_NY">Riverhead</a> courtroom - <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey</a> <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> slumped slightly as he stood next to his attorney. 
The former high school athlete was convicted of fatally stabbing Ecuadorean immigrant <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a>, 37, on Nov. 8, 2008, in <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> and of second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime in attacks on three other Hispanic men, including <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>'s friend Angel Loja. 
Conroy, 19, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, avoided a murder conviction and the possibility of life in prison. Still, he faces 8 to 25 years behind bars in what District Attorney <a href="/topics/Thomas_Spota">Thomas Spota</a>'s office said is the first hate-crime conviction in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County in a case involving a death. 
State Supreme Court Justice <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert W. Doyle</a> set sentencing for May 26. 
"The verdict that this jury announced will forever be a part of the legacy of <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a>," <a href="/topics/Thomas_Spota">Spota</a> said. 
The case that focused international attention on <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County stemmed from that autumn night when, officials say, Conroy and six other teenagers hunted down Hispanics for sport, finding their victim near the <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> train station. 
<a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a> swung his belt as the group moved in, hitting Conroy's head. Conroy then stabbed Lucero with a saw-toothed knife, cutting an artery and a vein. He told police in a written statement he had stabbed Lucero, but recanted when he, in an uncommon legal move, took the stand in his own defense. 
The manslaughter conviction means the jury found that Conroy intended to cause serious injury to Lucero, but his actions resulted in death. A conviction of second-degree murder as a hate crime - the top charge - would have meant that he intended to kill Lucero and did. 
William Keahon, Conroy's attorney, said he would appeal. "Unfortunately, in our system of justice, sometimes young men and women are convicted of crimes they did not commit," he said. "That's why we have an appeals process." 
Jurors said later they did not believe Conroy when he claimed the stabbing was done by another teen, Christopher Overton of <a href="/topics/East_Patchogue%2C_NY">East Patchogue</a>, who awaits his own trial in the case. They also said they did not believe Conroy intended to kill Lucero. 
The jury "almost disregarded his testimony and made its decision based on the prosecution's evidence, " said Paul Gianelli, Christopher Overton's lawyer. 
Lucero's mother, brother and sister arrived at court after the verdict. His brother, Joselo Lucero, praised the district attorney's office for its work on the case. "The hunting season is over, at least for now," Lucero said. "I've been here every day because I wanted to see how the justice system works in this country." 
Conroy's parents, <a href="/topics/Robert_W_Doyle">Robert</a> and Lori, sat quietly in the courtroom and then walked to an elevator, where Conroy's father began to cry. A sister and a brother were in tears. 
Conroy's family had no comment after the verdict. Only Conroy was charged with the stabbing. Four teens have pleaded guilty to first-degree gang assault and have not yet been sentenced, and two, including Overton, await trial. 
With Carl MacGowan

Crime

LICONR20

Jury finds Jeffrey Conroy guilty in hate-crime slaying

Jeffrey Conroy

With his friend <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey</a> <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> sitting only a few feet away, one of the four teenagers who admitted involvement in the death of Ecuadorean immigrant <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a> testified Monday at <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>'s trial in <a href="/topics/Riverhead%2C_NY">Riverhead</a> about a string of attacks aimed at Hispanic men. 
Speaking calmly at <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>'s murder and manslaughter trial in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court, Nicholas Hausch, 18, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, described five incidents within 24 hours over two nights in which he and friends attacked Latinos - culminating in the stabbing death of <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>, 37, of <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a>, on Nov. 8, 2008. 
During more than two hours of testimony, Hausch contradicted the testimony of two men who said they were attacked before <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a> was killed. Hausch also contradicted his own testimony at least once, and under cross-examination said he pleaded guilty to crimes he did not commit. 
<a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>, 19, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter, both as hate crimes. Prosecutors say he, Hausch and five other teens confronted <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a> before <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> stabbed him to death. 
<a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> is the only one of the seven teens charged with murder and manslaughter. 
Questioned by Assistant District Attorney Megan O'Donnell, Hausch said he and <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> fled after a confrontation with <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a> and his friend, Angel Loja, 37, of <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a>, near the <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> train station. 
"He told me he stabbed him," Hausch testified. He said he saw <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> holding a bloodstained knife. 
"We were telling him to throw it," Hausch said. "He said he washed it off in a puddle. 
"Someone said, 'Imagine if we get away with this.' I said we wouldn't." 
Hausch's testimony Monday came after he pleaded guilty in November to first-degree gang assault and fourth-degree conspiracy. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime in connection with two other attacks earlier on Nov. 8, 2008. 
Hausch, who agreed to testify against <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a> and two other teens as part of his plea, faces a sentence of 5 to 25 years in prison. Three other teens also pleaded guilty to the same charges and agreed to testify. Two defendants await trial. 
Hausch's testimony differed from that of Loja, who testified last week that the teens surrounded <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>, then punched and kicked him. 
Under questioning from Conroy's attorney, William Keahon of <a href="/topics/Hauppauge%2C_NY">Hauppauge</a>, Hausch said the teens gathered in a semicircle, and he said <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a> was not punched or kicked. Hausch said he did not see the stabbing. 
At one point, Hausch told Keahon no one demanded money from <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>. Then, Hausch said another teen, Kevin Shea, 18, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, had stuck his hand in his pocket as if he was armed and told <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a>, "Give me your money, I have a gun." 
Shea has pleaded guilty to gang assault and other charges. 
Hausch said he and four of the other teens, including Conroy, chased another <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> man, Hector Sierra, 57, but did not punch or kick him. Sierra has testified the teens punched and kicked him. 
Pressed by Keahon about his guilty plea, Hausch said he did not participate in assaults on Loja and Sierra before the attack on <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Lucero</a> - even though the Loja and Sierra incidents were included in the plea. 
"Were you guilty of that crime?" Keahon asked Hausch of the Loja attack. 
After a long pause, Hausch said, "No ... I'm not guilty." 
Referring to the earlier assault on Sierra, Keahon asked, "You did not have to plead guilty to that crime?" 
"No," Hausch said after another pause. 
When Keahon asked why he pleaded guilty, Hausch said, "I don't know." 
Earlier, Hausch testified that he and his friends often drove to <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> and <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a> to fight Latinos. He said they used a crude term, "beaner hopping," for the activity. 
"It's when you look for Hispanics to beat up," he said. 
He said he and two other teens, including <a href="/topics/Jordan">Jordan</a> Dasch, 19, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, who also has pleaded guilty in connection with Lucero's death, had picked fights with Hispanic men in <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> shortly after midnight on Nov. 8, 2008. 
After a verbal confrontation with two men, Hausch said he, Dasch and the other boy taunted a man sitting on a porch. When the man ran at them, Hausch said, he and Dasch shot at the man with a BB gun. 
Hausch said he threw the gun over a fence when police arrived, but none of the boys was arrested, he said. 
The following night, hours before Lucero was killed, Hausch said he, Dasch and Hartford attacked a man on Route 112 as they returned from purchasing marijuana. Hartford, 18, of <a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>, faces gang assault and other charges in connection with Lucero's death. 
Hausch said after he, Dasch and Hartford punched and kicked the man, he stole the man's <a href="/topics/NASCAR">NASCAR</a> baseball cap. "I took it as a trophy," he said. 
Police have testified a <a href="/topics/NASCAR">NASCAR</a> cap was found in Dasch's sport utility vehicle after Lucero's death.

LICONR30.WEB

Teen: I saw Jeffrey Conroy holding knife

Nicholas Hausch

The last can of energy drink that <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a> drank in his car before he was killed in November 2008 still sits in a holder beneath the dashboard. Nearby is a box of Tylenol. 
His brother, Joselo Lucero, 35, of <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a>, who inherited the car, refuses to remove the items. It is one small way of keeping the memory of his older brother alive. 
Joselo Lucero was going to sell the gray 2001 <a href="/topics/Acura">Acura</a>, "but my mom told me to keep it, just to remember him." Still, he did not start to drive it until two months ago. 
The Luceros' mother, Rosario, lives in the dream house <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo</a> built for her in Gualaceo, <a href="/topics/Ecuador">Ecuador</a> - a house <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo</a> had hoped to soon move into himself after 15 years in the United States. His plans were cut short when, <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> prosecutors charged, he was attacked by seven teenagers in <a href="/topics/Patchogue%2C_NY">Patchogue</a> and stabbed to death by <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a> in what police labeled a hate crime. He was 37. 
Thursday, <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>'s trial on murder charges is scheduled to begin in a <a href="/topics/Riverhead%2C_NY">Riverhead</a> courtroom. 
Lucero's death was a tragic end to a difficult life. He grew up poor - at times his family barely had enough food to eat, his sister, Isabel Lucero, has said. 
His father, Urbano Lucero, died of a heart attack when Marcelo was 8 years old. The son took on the duties of a parent, becoming a father figure to Joselo and Isabel, and something of a head of the household. 
By 13, Marcelo Lucero left school and took on jobs including shoemaking. By the time he turned 17 he was obsessed with the idea captivating many of his friends: immigrating to the United States to give his family a better life. 
At 22, he was able to leave his hometown when he and some of his friends hired "coyotes," or smugglers, to bring them north. 
He first landed in <a href="/topics/Queens%2C_NY">Queens</a>, then made his way to Patchogue and a growing community of immigrants from Gualaceo. He worked two jobs at times, including at a dry cleaner, and called his mother several times a week. 
"In some ways, it was a lonely life," Joselo Lucero said. 
Now, as <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Conroy</a>'s trial begins, Lucero's family is nervous, exhausted, and anxious to see justice carried out. Time has not healed the wound, they say, and in some ways they are worse than ever. 
"In some ways I don't have hope here anymore," Joselo Lucero, 35, said as he sat in the <a href="/topics/Acura">Acura</a> parked at a favorite spot of his brother's - the docks on South Ocean Avenue in Patchogue overlooking the <a href="/topics/Great_South_Bay%2C_NY">Great South Bay</a>. "I don't have the dream. My hopes have collapsed. Everything has fallen apart." 
Rosario and Isabel Lucero had hoped to join him for the start of the trial but could not get visas in time. Now they must wait for a new appointment at the U.S. Embassy in <a href="/topics/Ecuador">Ecuador</a> early next month. 
Joselo Lucero is wracked by emotional pain and second thoughts. "I wish I could stop time and go back two or three days before it happened and tell him how much I loved him," he said. "I never had a chance to say goodbye. He died by himself. He died in the street."

LILUCE18

On eve of trial's start, family recalls Lucero's life

Lucero family

Over the past year, he has turned 18, earned his GED and dreamed about moving to <a href="/topics/California">California</a> and going to college. All from the confines of a <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County Jail cell. 
<a href="/topics/Jose_Pacheco_%28politician%29">Jose Pacheco</a> is one of seven defendants charged with participating in the hate killing of <a href="/topics/Marcelo_Lucero">Marcelo Lucero</a>, and the only minority among the group. He and five others have been held in jail for nearly a year awaiting trial in the closely watched case. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/patchogue-hate-crime-case-1.244">PHOTOS: 7 teens accused in Patchogue slaying</a> 
In prison greens, behind Plexiglas, the 18-year-old repeatedly glanced at his mother and attorney during an interview last week as he affirmed his innocence and distanced himself from the six other defendants - all former students at Patchogue-<a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a> High School. He is the first defendant to publicly speak. 
"This isn't for anyone," he said of jail. "I've learned a lot of things. I was with the wrong crowd. Your life can change in two minutes. Two minutes, that's all it takes." 
Pacheco denied any involvement in the Lucero attack a year ago in Patchogue. "That was just my ride home," he said. 
"I had nothing to do with this crime," he added. "I am innocent. I want the public to know I'm a good person. I'm not a monster." 
The conditions of the interview included having his attorney, Christopher Brocato, and his mother, Sherri Pacheco, present. No questions about the attacks Pacheco is charged with were allowed. 
&nbsp; 
Charge: Teens sought victim 
Authorities have painted a different picture of Pacheco. They say he and six other teenagers set out to look for a Latino victim on Nov. 8; found Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant; and pummeled him before one, <a href="/topics/Jeffrey_Conroy">Jeffrey Conroy</a>, stabbed him. Brocato said Pacheco - who was charged with gang assault and conspiracy - was a spectator and had no physical contact with Lucero. 
In January, authorities charged the defendants with additional counts, alleging that they went on a yearlong crime spree against Latinos. Pacheco is charged with attacks on three victims on Nov. 8 and three other victims from previous attacks dating back to December of 2007. 
[jail], I was all over the news, people thought I was a black racist," said Pacheco. 
&nbsp; 
Says gangs threatened him 
Pacheco said he was threatened by Latino gangs, whose members spit on him. 
Pacheco sees most of the other defendants - only one is out on bail - but says he doesn't talk to them much. "After what they put me through, I'd like to stay to myself," said Pacheco. 
Expressing condolences to the Lucero family, Pacheco said he'd like to offer them in person if he gets out. "My condolences will always go out to the family," he said. "I can't begin to imagine how they feel right now, losing a brother, losing a son." 
Pacheco spends his days reading books his mother brings him on her twice-a-week visits. He read the "Twilight" series. He's trying to learn Japanese. He plays basketball and goes to a prayer group. He calls his mother every day. 
Pacheco said he has three friends who regularly write him letters and visit. Others have turned their backs on him, said his mother. 
He said he is nervous about the prospect of a trial. "It's just a roll of the dice," he said. "Your fate is in other people's hands." 
If acquitted, he said he wants to move to <a href="/topics/California">California</a>. "I don't want to live in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County," he said. "I want to put this behind me. I will live a more private life. Stay to myself. Look out for me and my mother. That's it." 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/patchogue-hate-crime-case-1.244">PHOTOS: 7 teens accused in Patchogue slaying</a>

Nassau

LIJOSE01

Patchogue hate crime defendant: 'I'm not a monster'

Jose Pacheco

Seven teenage friends had singled out a Hispanic man for a beating, but one among them - Jeffrey Conroy - was intent on killing when he stuck a knife into the man's chest, Suffolk prosecutors said after an indictment boosting his charges from manslaughter to murder was unsealed in Riverhead yesterday. 
All seven Patchogue-Medford High School students charged in the fatal attack on Marcelo&nbsp;Lucero, 37, now face new hate crime and conspiracy counts. They were charged with conspiring to attack Lucero and what prosecutors said was an unsuccessful attempt to surround and pummel another Hispanic man, Hector Sierra, earlier on Nov. 8.&nbsp; 
The seven were charged with second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted gang assault for accosting Lucero's companion, Angel Loja, and Sierra. Two of the teenagers also face assault charges as a hate crime for shooting another Hispanic man, Marlon Garcia, prosecutors said. 
Conroy, 17, of Medford, will be arraigned Monday on a charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime - the first time on Long Island someone has faced such a charge - along with the original charge of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. The indictments came the same day funeral services where being held for Lucero in Ecuador. 
Several hours after nearly 600 mourners packed the church for Lucero's funeral, his mother, Rosario, said the latest indictments were nothing to celebrate but the charges are "well deserved. They need to understand the pain they have caused us." 
Conroy's arraignment was postponed because his lawyer, William Keahon, of Islandia, was out of state. 
Reached by phone yesterday, Keahon said his client was innocent and he lashed out at county officials who he said had unfairly and publicly condemned his client in recent days. In particular, Keahon criticized County Executive Steve Levy, a Democrat known for his tough stance against illegal immigration. 
"I find it outrageous that a man with a law degree holding the position of county executive can, from day one, brand my client a racist white supremacist without any personal knowledge of the proof in this case," Keahon said. "The only proof of racism and white supremacism are the words and deeds of Mr. Levy, who for the past three years has very clearly spoken and acted as a racist." 
Levy responded in a statement, saying, "It is reprehensible for anyone to suggest that individuals opposed to illegal immigration are necessarily intolerant or culpable in this outrageous act of hate." 
Although Levy noted the suspects are presumed innocent, he added, "I think it is fair to say that an individual who tattoos a swastika on his body can be classified as a white supremacist," referring to police reports of a tattoo on Conroy's leg. 
Outside court, Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said the seven charged in the attack admitted they regularly beat Hispanics for fun. He said one of the accused attackers, Anthony Hartford, 17, of Medford, told police "I don't go out doing this very often, maybe once a week." 
"That statement provides a true window into the mind-set of these defendants," Spota said. "To them, it was a sport." 
Hartford's lawyer, Laurence Silverman, of Huntington, said in court that "words have been put in his mouth." 
Silverman told Suffolk County Court Judge C. Randall Hinrichs that his client has Hispanic ancestors and "absolutely denies that he is a bigot." 
Also facing new charges along with Conroy and Hartford were: Jordan Dasch, 17, of Medford; Nicholas Hausch, 17, of Medford; Jose Pacheco, 17, of East Patchogue; Kevin Shea, 17, of Medford; and Christopher Overton, 16, of East Patchogue. 
Hausch and Dasch also were each charged with another count of second-degree assault as a hate crime after they attacked Garcia in front of his home with a BB gun about 5 a.m. that day, prosecutors said. Garcia escaped harm. 
Dasch's lawyer, Jason Bassett, of Central Islip, denied the charge. "I think the district attorney's office is taking a bunch of unsolved bias crimes from that area that involved teenagers and they're just throwing it at these kids," he said. 
Hinrichs set bail for all suspects but Overton at $250,000 cash or $500,000 bond. 
He ordered Overton held without bail. 
Staff writers Kathleen Kerr, Patrick Whittle, Reid Epstein and Bart Jones in Ecuador contributed to this story.

Indictment upgrades accusation to murder for 1 of 7 high school students arrested in hate-crime killing

GUALACEO, ECUADOR - Rosario Lucero pressed her head against the niche in a concrete mausoleum where she had placed a small wood box containing the ashes of her son Marcelo. Then she began to wail. 
"Why did they take my son?" she sobbed yesterday in Spanish at the municipal cemetery here. "Why did they take you?" 
According to Suffolk County police, he was taken because of ethnic hatred. Lucero, 37, was killed Nov. 8 in Patchogue, police say, in an attack by seven teenagers, including one charged with stabbing him to death.&nbsp; 
His body was returned to Ecuador on Wednesday, greeted by hundreds of people who lined the streets as a procession carried his coffin from the city entrance to the spacious home he built for his mother but never saw. He had planned to move there soon himself after 15 years in the United States. 
He was cremated yesterday morning, fulfilling a desire he had expressed to his family. Then, shortly before 4 p.m., Rosario Lucero and her daughter Isabel walked out of the house. Each carried a wooden box containing his ashes. 
One was destined for the cemetery; the ashes in the other will be sprinkled in the sea. 
They walked down cobblestone streets, past the plaza where Marcelo played as a boy, and into the towering Matris Catholic Church of Gualaceo. Some 600 people sat in the pews as the church bells rang. 
The family ascended to the altar and placed the two wooden boxes on a small table covered with a purple cloth. Six candles on metal stands surrounded the table. 
In front of it stood wreaths and a flower display that spelled the word "TUNAS," an acronym in Spanish that stands for "Everyone United, No One Walks Alone." The TUNAS are a group of Lucero's childhood friends. Some sat in a front pew. 
In a homily, the Rev. Jorge Moreno denounced the "xenophobia" he asserted contributed to the death of Lucero, whom he said had emigrated to seek a better life. Then, Lucero's sister Isabel took to the altar to read a message from their mother, too devastated to speak herself. 
"Marcelo, my son, you will never be far from my heart, because the love of a mother is interminable," Isabel said. Calling it her "night of pain and bitterness," she said she hoped "with the sunrise we will see justice." 
When the Mass ended, the family took the wooden boxes from the altar, and made their way out of the church, where a crush of people and television cameras awaited them. They walked through the streets again, followed by hundreds of mourners as they made their way about a mile to the cemetery. 
They entered its gates, and walked across a grassy section to a 20-foot-high mausoleum made of concrete and painted white. It was divided into 2-foot-by-3-foot openings where bodies - and in this case, urns holding ashes - are placed. Lucero's spot was the newest one available, No. 150. 
Rosario placed one wooden box inside, said a few words quietly, and walked a few feet back to her relatives as a throng surrounded them. But then she turned around and returned to the niche. And she began to wail. 
Marcelo&nbsp;Lucero's journey to the United States to help pull his family out of poverty was finally over. He was back home, although his family was hardly at peace.

Ashes of Marcelo Lucero laid to rest in Ecuador

On a balmy night just blocks from the street where he was slain one week ago, Marcelo&nbsp;Lucero's life and death illustrated, for a gathering of several hundred in Patchogue, both the unity and division of a community. 
The trappings of the viewing and memorial service yesterday in the Congregational Church of Patchogue were familiar: Lucero, dressed in a dark suit, lay with hands folded in a white-lined coffin piled with bouquets of flowers.&nbsp; 
A speaker recalled a happy childhood of games and family, a childhood lived in Ecuador yet familiar to nearly any community in America. 
While Lucero's death has brought national and international attention to the community, the significance of the moment was felt especially deeply to those who knew him and the life of a new immigrant. 
"I keep thinking, how could they do this crime?" asked Ana Gamantari, 30, who immigrated to Patchogue from Lucero's hometown of Gualaceo 10 years ago. "How much hatred for Hispanics could they have?" 
Julieta Cárdenas, 37, of East Elmhurst, knew Marcelo for more than three years. Her family spent Christmas Eve with him the last two years, and they were already planning for this year's holiday, she said. 
"Before this happened, I didn't think racism existed here," Cárdenas said. "Now that I've seen this happen here, I know racial hatred exists, and it's so unjust. 
"When I think of those stab wounds, it's as though they were in my chest," she said. "And the reason why he died - that's what hurts me so much." 
Cárdenas' son, Jorge Gonzalez, recalled fishing with Lucero, and a meal of seviche, a dish of citrus-cured seafood popular in Ecuador. The last time the pair saw Lucero, just over a month ago, he told them he'd gotten a new job that paid better than his last. 
"He came here just to work, and he worked and worked," said Jorge. "He died just when he was starting to do better." 
Lucero, 38, who moved to Patchogue 15 years ago, and a Hispanic friend were surrounded and attacked by seven high school students from nearby Medford and East Patchogue as they walked near the Patchogue train station on the night of Nov. 8, officials say. 
The suspects, all 17 and 16 years old and students at Patchogue-Medford High School, were arrested minutes later and charged with felony gang assault. One of them, Jeffrey Conroy, also was charged with manslaughter as a hate crime for allegedly stabbing Lucero in the chest. 
The seven pleaded not guilty at their arraignments on Monday. A grand jury has indicted all seven, but those charges will not be unsealed until Tuesday. On that day, an Ecuadorean government official said yesterday, Lucero's body will be returned to Ecuador, where his mother, younger sister and nephew live. 
The crowd, which swelled to several hundred and threatened to overflow the church, began lining up long before the church doors opened shortly after 5 p.m. 
Speaking for Lucero's brother, Joselo Lucero, who stood by his brother's coffin and embraced mourners, the Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter evoked the personality of an open, talkative man who liked a good debate. "If you held up a black stone, he would claim it was deep blue," Wolter said. 
Organizers said earlier this week that politicians would not be invited to speak at the service, but several attended and spoke with the crowd. 
Brooklyn congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez, a Democrat, said outside the church that Hispanics are being "demonized" within the debate over immigration. 
Ximena Gomez, 23, a visitor from Colorado who didn't know Lucero, said the circumstances of his death compelled her to come with her 2-year-old son, Marx. 
"We have to show support," she said. "He needs to know that there are lots of Hispanics who support him." 
The Rev. Allan Ramirez told the mourners near the end of the service that the name Lucero means "bright and shining star." 
"May that light shine brilliantly in the darkness," he said. 
This story was reported by staff writers Keith Herbert, Dave Marcus, Laura Rivera&nbsp;and Andrew Strickler. It was written by Strickler.

Those who knew Marcelo Lucero as a good friend are stunned, saddened 

C1NMARCELO09_WEB

The red SUV pulled into the long driveway on Middle Island Avenue in Medford. Little Nicky was ready to go. 
Freshly showered, Nicholas Hausch had just eaten dinner when his buddy Jordan Dasch arrived around 7:30 p.m. 
The 17-year-olds, both seniors at Patchogue-Medford High School, had no plans, no particular destination, no idea that the night would end so differently than the other nights they spent roaming from deserted parking lots to empty parks, searching for something to do. 
Four and a half hours later, Marcelo Lucero, a 38-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant, was beaten, stabbed and left for dead; Hausch, Dasch and five of their schoolmates faced detectives asking about the fatal attack; and a national debate on hate and immigration was being reignited, casting a shadow on their school and the increasingly diverse community of Patchogue. 
All seven have been charged with gang assault; one is charged with manslaughter as a hate crime. All have pleaded not guilty and lawyers for some of them have said their clients left before any attack. A Suffolk grand jury has handed up indictments in the case that will be unsealed on Tuesday.&nbsp; 
The following account of the evening is based on what is alleged in court records, and interviews with witnesses, attorneys and police. 
Bought beer at gas station 
At about 7:30 p.m. a week ago Saturday, Dasch, a pizza delivery driver with the night off, and Hausch set off from their Medford homes with a few stops to make, a few people to pick up. They bought beer at a gas station on Route 112 and later hung out with a dozen or so others in a train station parking lot. 
Among them was Jeffrey Conroy, a 17-year-old senior well known at Patchogue-Medford High School and in the Long Island athletic scene for his prowess in wrestling, football and lacrosse. According to the criminal complaint, he brought a knife with him that night. 
Christopher Overton, 16, was new to the group. Some said they had never met him before. He was suspended from Bellport High School last year for his role in an East Patchogue home invasion that left a man dead. He pleaded guilty to burglary in the May 2007 incident. Patchogue-Medford school officials said last week that Overton should not have been allowed to enroll at their 3,000-student high school. 
The group, which included at least two girls, hung out at the parking lot only 10 or 15 minutes before all 10 squeezed into Dasch's 1996 GMC and headed to Twelve Pines Park on Southaven Avenue in Medford. They joined several others there, horsing around on an old jungle gym, the girls jumping on the guys' backs. 
They headed over to the basketball courts. But there was no basketball game. The ball they brought was deflated. 
Some of the teens drank beer and text-messaged with friends and parents, breaking off into smaller groups to talk. One of the girls in the group and Conroy kept mostly to themselves, talking intently about an earlier promise to keep each other out of trouble. Another girl said she talked with Kevin Shea, 17, and Hausch. 
One of the girls would later tell Newsday that one of the defendants made a comment about a Hispanic man in the park. Another one of the girls said he later suggested, "Let's go fight Mexicans." 
Allegedly sought a Hispanic 
By 11:30 p.m., the group was ready to disband. The seven boys piled into Dasch's SUV. The two girls said they went home and thought the boys planned to do the same. 
But they weren't ready to go home, prosecutors said. 
They wanted to go find a Hispanic, any Hispanic, to beat up in a violent nighttime activity they called "beaner jumping," according to prosecutors and the complaints. 
The group of Medford and East Patchogue teens drove around in Medford and Patchogue Village for a short time before heading to downtown Patchogue. Along with Dasch, Hausch, Overton, Shea and Conroy was Jose Pacheco, 17, who is half-black and half-Puerto Rican and appeared to be the only nonwhite in the group, and Anthony Hartford, 17, a night school student. 
Dasch parked in a public lot near the intersection of Main Street and South Ocean Avenue in Patchogue and the group set off through the working-class neighborhood south of Main Street on foot. At about the same time, a half mile away, Lucero, who worked in a dry cleaning business in Riverhead, was standing outside of a friend's Bay Avenue home, two doors down from his own $500-a-month apartment. 
"I'm outside, Jose Morales!" he said in a voice-mail message, in his usual joking tone. "I'm outside." Morales was asleep and didn't answer. 
Allegedly began with taunts 
At about 11:45 p.m., the teenagers were within sight of the Patchogue Long Island Rail Road station, on a street lined with darkened homes and streetlights. Approaching the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Sephton Street, they saw two men. Two Hispanic men. 
Lucero, a bulky man and a regular at the Eastern Athletic Club in Blue Point and a Patchogue shop where he paid 27 cents a minute to call his family in Ecuador, and an unidentified friend were walking to Elder Fernandez's house to watch a movie. 
Hurling ethnic taunts, prosecutors said, the group closed in on the pair. Lucero tore off his belt and swung it at the teenagers. Shea struck the flailing Lucero hard, cutting his face. "I punched him, I got him good," Shea said, according to the complaint. "I saw blood coming down." Shea's boss at the Oakwood Farm horse stable, Manny Termini, would later say he was shocked at the allegations, describing Shea as responsible, afraid to walk in the dark, and timid around blood. 
One of the defendants later told police Shea also shouted for the group to encircle the pair. 
Shea's attorney, Steven Politi, of Central Islip, declined to respond to the punch allegation and said his client was not involved in the stabbing. 
At some point, Lucero's friend broke free from the circle and ran away. Conroy, the largest of the group, swung at Lucero with a knife, stabbing him in the chest, prosecutors said. 
Just before 11:55 p.m., a Fifth Precinct patrol officer spotted the seven teens walking in two groups near each other, headed north toward Main Street and the parked vehicle. Nearly simultaneously, a 911 alert of a stabbing a few blocks away reached police, who were quickly at the scene. 
Within a few minutes, a second police officer stopped the group on South Ocean Avenue. The teens did not run or resist; a knife was found on Conroy, who later told detectives, "I stabbed him once in the shoulder I think." 
Fernandez, who had been waiting for Lucero to come over, instead found him collapsed on the pavement of an alley a few dozen yards from the scene of the fight, his body covered in blood. 
Staff writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this story.

They wanted to find a Hispanic, any Hispanic, to beat up, prosecutors say

inGANG180920

Rosario Lucero last saw her son, Marcelo, when he left the village of Gualaceo, Ecuador, for the United States at the age of 22.&nbsp; 
Ever since, she'd been begging him to move back home. And every year, he'd say he wanted to, but never seemed to make it. 
Now Marcelo Lucero is finally coming home, in a coffin. Police say the 38-year-old immigrant was stabbed to death Saturday night in Patchogue when seven teenagers attacked him. Suffolk police have labeled it a hate crime targeting Latinos. 
"The pain is so great, there aren't words to describe what I feel," Rosario Lucero said in Spanish yesterday by telephone from her home in Gualaceo on the death of the second of her four children. 
Two others, Joselo and Catalina, are also on Long Island. The fourth, Isabel, lives in Ecuador. 
Rosario Lucero said Marcelo called her every week at her home in the village outside the city of Cuenca. While saying he wanted to return home, he also noted there was very little work. 
"He would say, 'What am I going to do there?'" she said. 
Rosario Lucero recalled that her son told her about the latest trials and tribulations of life in America, how his jobs were going, when he got sick, how he missed his home country. He regularly wired her money to help make ends meet in the impoverished South American nation. 
"My son was very good with me," she said. "He wasn't some kind of animal to kill. We are human beings." 
She said she never wanted him to leave Ecuador in the first place, and that she worried for his safety in the United States. 
"I was afraid. I told him to take care of himself," she said, adding that "they don't like Latinos" in the United States. 
As she became overcome with grief, her daughter Isabel took the phone. "It's a horror," she said. "Only the mentally sick could do something like this." 
Rosario Lucero said she wants only two things now: that the authorities "do justice" to the accused teenagers, and that her son's body be sent back to Ecuador for a Christian burial. 
A funeral is planned this week in Patchogue, and Marcelo's body will be flown home afterward, Latino community leaders said. 
Rosario Lucero will be getting her son back, only in a way she never imagined. 
"I won't see him alive again," she said.

Patchogue stabbing victim's mother recalls her son, seeks justice as she awaits body for burial

Rosario Lucero

Marcelo Lucero liked playing volleyball and lifting weights. He rented movies with friends and called his mother in Ecuador several times a week.&nbsp; 
"Even though he'd been in the United States for 16 years, he always said, 'I miss home. I'm going back,'" his brother Joselo said yesterday. "Now he'll never be able to go home." 
Friends in Patchogue found it both tragic and ironic that Lucero, 38, was stabbed to death Saturday night in what police describe as a hate crime. They describe him as a thoughtful, quiet man who avoided arguments and often went out of his way to help neighbors. 
His landlady, Rosa Orellana, who knew Lucero when both were children in Ecuador, remembered the way he would greet her cheerily when he returned from working at a dry cleaner. As soon as snow started to fall, she said, he would shovel her walkways. "This is a guy who got along with everyone," she said. "I mean everyone." 
Lucero was 10 when his father died of a heart attack. "Suddenly, he became the man of the house and had to help my mother raise three younger siblings," said his brother, also known as Efriam. "He never complained." 
The family lived in the Andean mountains of Ecuador, and a sister left to become a resident of Queens. Marcelo got a visa to come to the States, and was followed by his brother, who is four years younger. "There were so few opportunities at home," his brother said. "He wanted the American dream." 
Lucero settled in a neighborhood next to downtown Patchogue that's favored by Ecuadoreans from the same region, known as Cuenca. He paid $500 for a room above Orellana's house. A friend, Cesar Angamarca, said that Marcelo's life was "boring and predictable - go to work, then home, then back to work." 
Another friend, Jose Morales, said Lucero rarely walked at night because he was afraid of being attacked by muggers who prey on Hispanics, but on Saturday he decided to walk a few blocks away to watch a movie at a friend's apartment. As Lucero passed Morales' house, he left a voice-mail message: "Hey, I'm outside." Morales was asleep, but his cell phone recorded the time of the call - 11:36 and 57 seconds - just minutes before Lucerno was killed. 
Police blame a group of seven teenagers, who they say were looking to kill a Hispanic - any Hispanic. 
Marcelo Lucerno was elated by the election of Barack Obama last week, his brother said. "He saw it as a chance for people with brown skin to be seen as equals. Instead, my brother was killed because of his appearance." 
Joselo added, "I want the maximum penalty for these guys, although that won't bring back my brother. They killed a beautiful man."

Patchogue man slain in hate crime attack moved from Ecuador to pursue American dream, brother says

They told police they wanted to beat up someone who looked Hispanic. 
That was the motive, police said, that a mob of seven young men had in mind when they attacked a Patchogue man, who ended up being stabbed to death minutes before midnight Saturday, Suffolk police said. 
"These individuals told detectives that they were looking to beat someone of Latino heritage," said Det. Lt Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the homicide squad, adding that the victim, Marcelo Lucero, 37, is of Ecuadorean descent.&nbsp; 
Fitzpatrick said the seven suspects drove around Patchogue searching for victims and found Lucero and another Ecuadorean man. The attack occurred at Railroad Avenue and Sephton Street in Patchogue, near the Long Island Rail Road station. 
The seven jumped out of the car and cornered the two men on the street, police said. Police said the second man escaped unharmed and fled to a friend's house, where he and Lucero had planned to watch a movie. He called police and later helped identify the suspects. 
The friend who had been waiting for them, Elder Fernandez, 36, said the mob fled and he found Lucero near Funard Court, a few hundred feet from where police said the stabbing took place, covered in blood. 
Lucero was transferred to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His relatives could not be reached last night. Fernandez said he has known Lucero since they were 10. "I saw my friend's last minute," he said. "It was miserable." 
The teens, all of them white and who live in either East Patchogue or Medford, have been charged with what police say is a hate crime. All seven face a charge of first-degree gang assault. They were being held overnight at the Fifth Precinct in Patchogue and are expected to be arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip today. 
One suspect, Jeffrey Conroy, 17, of 189 Jamaica Ave. in Medford, also was charged with first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime, said Fitzpatrick. 
Another suspect, Christopher Overton, 16, has the same name, age and address, 9 Yacht St. in East Patchogue, as one who pleaded guilty to burglary in another fatal attack in May 2007 in which a 38-year-old East Patchogue man was shot dead when a group of teenagers robbed his home. A neighbor found the victim, Carlton Shaw, dead in his backyard, his 3-year-old son sleeping on his chest. 
The others charged in the hate crime are: Jordan Dasch, 17, of 5 Lyndsie Ct., Medford; Anthony Hartford, 17, of 94 Greenport Ave., Medford; Nicholas Hausch, 17, of 36A Middle Island Ave., Medford; Jose Pacheco, 17, of 244 Hospital Rd., East Patchogue; and Kevin Shea, 17, of 301 Jamaica Ave., Medford. 
A woman who answered the door last night at Conroy's home said, "We're not talking to anyone. Sorry." 
At Overton's East Patch- ogue home, a man who said he was Overton's father said he believed his son was innocent. "I know he walked away from it" before the stabbing occurred, said the man. 
A woman at Shea's home said: "We have no comment." 
The other suspects and their families could not be reached. 
The attack drew swift reaction from County Executive Steve Levy. "This heinous crime that led to the death of an individual because of his race will not be tolerated in Suffolk County," he said in a police news release. 
The Rev. Allan B. Ramirez, pastor of the Brookville Reformed Church in Brookville, decried a climate in which hate crimes can occur. "Unfortunately, on the days after this nation feels so proud of having elected an African-American president, we have to be reminded of the saddest page in our history," Ramirez said. 
"We're a very diverse community and have been for my whole life," said Paul Pontieri, mayor of the Village of Patchogue. "We've always had a very strong and very involved Hispanic community." 
Conroy, who youth sports coaches recall as an outstanding athlete, said they were saddened by news of his arrest. "He was a very talented multisport athlete when he was younger," said Mike Botti of Holtsville, who coached his football team in the PAL. He said he was a star wrestler and lacrosse player at Patchogue-Medford High. "I am so shocked about this." 
Fernandez said Lucero was a fitness buff who lived with friends. He said Lucero moved to America 16 years ago seeking a better life. "I can't sleep. So nervous," he said. "You don't know what's going to happen outside." 
Staff writers Michael Amon, Reid Epstein, Dave Marcus and Gregg Sarra contributed to this story.

Cops: 7 teens went looking to beat someone up, and a Patchogue man of Ecuadorean descent ended up stabbed to death

Complete coverage: Marcelo Lucero and the 'Patchogue 7'

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