United States v. Morales

MEMORANDUM DECISION

CHIN, District Judge.

On May 1, 1997, after a four-week trial, a jury in this ease convicted defendant Ricardo Morales on 15 counts and defendant Jesus Mendez on 17 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, armed robbery, assault, felony murder, and weapons violations. The jury found that the defendants and others, including Angel Diaz, who was found dead in his jail cell during the pendency of this case, had engaged in a series of crimes that reached back to 1987 and that ended in a shootout in the Bronx on March 14,1996.

The shootout followed a carjacking of a black BMW by Diaz,…