| Bronx Drug
Case Expanded To Cover A Murder so Beltran
Trial in SDNY, CI Was Deactivated
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 12 – A
multi-defendant case charging
narcotics conspiracy and guns,
with phone data dumps and
complaints from Valhalla and
Essex County jails landed in
Federal court.
On February 5,
2021 U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York Judge Katherine Polk
Failla held a proceeding.
Inner City Press covered
it.
Assistant US
Attorney Frank Balsamello
described the range of
discovery, and a parallel
state case.
Defendants cut
in, complaining of bad
treatment. Judge Failla
supported the idea of a
discovery coordinator.
Jump cut
to June 2022 when defendant
Drilon Haxhaj, according to
his lawyer, has been engaged
in extensive plea negotiations
- and therefore asks that his
May 2022 suppression motion be
held in abeyance. He pled
guilty on June 27.
On July 21, 2022
Judge Failla held a proceeding
with remaining defendants and
Inner City Press went and
attended, live tweeting here:
On March 29,
counsel for Shpendi Haxhaj
filed a reply memo to sever
his case, citing the risks of
a joint trial. Dkt 161. In a
garbled footnote, "the defense
does not concede that the
alleged statements made by the
court-defendant are true or
that they were in fact made at
all. The defense argues that
if the declaration co-defenses
t's statements were omitted as
evidence that regardless of
their truth they would
prejudice the defendant."
On
July 24, 2023,
counsel for
Shpendi Haxhaj
filed another
letter with
Judge Failla,
that "we
informed Mr.
Haxhaj that if
he is
convicted at
trial of
murder in aid
of
racketeering,
he would face
a mandatory
life
sentence...
Mr. Haxhaj has
informed
Counsel that
he has elected
to proceed to
trial."
On
August 9,
co-defendant
Ivis Perdomo's
lawyer filed a
supplemental
sentencing
memo complete
with DD5s and
photos of a
club shooting,
objecting to
the US seeking
at least 240
months.
On
August 17
Jeremy Cedeno
was sentenced,
at the top of
his guideline.
Inner City
Press was
there, thread.
On
September 12,
co-defendant
Boris Beltran
was on trial
on Courtroom
110 of 40
Foley Square.
The gallery
behind him was
nearly full;
the right
side, empty. A
49th Precinct
sergeant
was on the
witness stand,
identifying
the drugs
seized that
night. But on
cross she was
asked if she
knew if
Beltran lived
in the raided
apartment. She
did not.
On
September 13,
the cooperator
on the witness
stand was
cross-examined about, among
other things,
getting back
into drug
dealing the
day after he
was released
from prison,
then cutting
the cooperation deal. On
January 5,
2021 he pled guilty
to conspiracy
to distribute
5 kilos or
more of
cocaine, with
a ten year
minimum,
maximum life.
But on
cross he
acknowledged
he never planned for
five kilos -- "if
I'd
managed to
stay out I
might have gotten
there," he
said. Then
why, with only
three years
left on his
state
sentence, did
he agree to
this plea to
ten to life?
It also
emerged he couldn't
say it was Beltran
who put drugs
in the jacket
passed under
the table of a
restaurant on
Fordham
Road in The Bronx,
or into the
trunk of his
car outside.
On
September 14,
with defendant
Yeltsin
Beltran
greeting those
in the gallery
behind him,
the prosecutor
put an
NYPD detective
on the stand,
to describe
the victim Ramon
Encarnacion
bloody in Lincoln
Hospital, and
the afterhours
location on 149th
Street by
Courtlandt Avenue.
On
September 15,
Beltran's
lawyer was cross
examining a
member of the
police team
which made
undercover
drug buys. He
defined
"ghosting" and
admitted that
their CI was
himself
selling crack
and so was "deactivated."
The trial
continues.
The case is US v.
Haxhaj et al., 21-cr-17
(Failla)
***
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