BRONX MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO GUN CHARGE IN CONNECTION WITH
AN EASTER SUNDAY SHOOTING THAT CLAIMED THE LIFE OF A TWO YEAR
OLD TODDLER – INVESTIGATORS CONTINUE TO SEARCH FOR THE GUNMAN
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHILD’S DEATH
Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a Bronx man has been convicted on a gun possession charge in connection with a shooting that claimed the life of a two-year-old boy on Easter Sunday 2006. Two-year-old David Pacheco was shot and killed by a stray bullet while sitting in his family’s vehicle at the intersection of Harrison and East Tremont Avenues.
Nicholas Morris, 28, pled guilty to one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 3rd degree. Under the plea agreement, Morris is to be sentenced to time served and given a Conditional Discharge when he appears before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gross on July 30, 2008 in Part T-11. Once the guilty plea was entered, Morris’ attorney addressed the judge and asked that his client be paroled pending sentencing. The ’People’ consented to the defendant’s release.
Morris was originally charged with murder in the death of young David Pacheco and has been in custody since his arrest more than two years ago on April 16, 2006. Morris admitted that he was in possession of a fully loaded and operable 357 Magnum handgun and was in the vicinity of the fatal shooting. However, the gun that was in his possession was not the murder weapon and had not even been fired.
District Attorney Robert T. Johnson said that the murder charge against Morris will be dismissed when he returns to court for sentencing on the gun charge. Mr. Johnson said that “based on all of the available evidence that we now have, including information provided by defense counsel on the eve of trial, we cannot meet our burden of proving a charge of murder beyond a reasonable doubt.” Last month, on April 14, 2008, the ‘People’ consented to a defense motion for a mistrial after jury selection had been completed but before testimony began.
District Attorney Johnson, at that time, assigned two senior staff members, Assistant District Attorney Edward Talty, Chief of Homicide and Assistant District Attorney Daniel McCarthy, Chief Trial Counsel and Director of Trial Training, to conduct a thorough review of the case, including the information provided by Morris’ attorney. The investigation is continuing.
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