Trio sentenced to prison in ‘mistaken’ gang stabbing death of Teaneck manTuesday February 26, 2013, 5:15 PM
BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Three members of a street gang known as “Dominicans Don’t Play” were sent to prison Tuesday for their roles in the stabbing death of a Teaneck man more than three years ago.
MITSU YASUKAWA/ STAFF PHTOGRAPHER
Standing next to his attroney Kevin Roe, Manuel Ramirez, one of the three men convicted of taking part in a gang-related killing in Hackensack, listens to the judge on his sentence Tuesday. Gabriel Pujols, 25, of Union City, received a 23-year term during his sentencing in state Superior Court in Hackensack. His co-defendants, Frederick DeLeon of Union City and Manuel Ramirez of Hackensack, received 12 and 10 years, respectively.
What triggered the deadly attack on 20-year-old Victor Garcia in June 2009 was a case of mistaken identity. The three men were drinking at a party in Hackensack and later got into a scuffle with a group of men believed to be members of another street gang known as the “Trinitarios,” prosecutors said.
Pujols perceived the incident as a sign of disrespect, and he and his two friends decided to settle the issue later, prosecutors said. They got into a car driven by Ramirez, and after they drove past a group of men standing on the side of a Hackensack street, they made a U-turn, jumped out and attacked the men, prosecutors said.
Garcia, who was not a gang member and was returning with two friends from a soccer game, happened to be in that location, and while everyone else ran from the attackers, he didn’t, prosecutors said.
Pujols admitted that he stabbed Garcia, thinking that he was a member of a rival gang. DeLeon also admitted to his role in the attack.
Ramirez denied any role in the attack; he was tried for murder last year, and a jury found him guilty of reckless manslaughter.
The sentencing on Tuesday was attended by relatives of Garcia.
In a letter read in court by a relative, Garcia’s mother said her son came from Ecuador in 2006 at the age of 16. He was a gifted soccer player and wanted to join the U.S. Marines, but his parents were concerned he could be injured in battle and made him change his mind, she said.
When given the opportunity to speak, Pujols apologized to Garcia’s family.
He also renounced his gang membership in a letter read by his attorney.
“I really detest everything I once was,” he said in the letter.
His attorney, Joseph Manzo, asked for leniency for his client, saying Pujols truly felt remorse and that he tried to make up for it by cooperating with authorities and testifying against Ramirez — the lone co-defendant who chose to go to trial.
Jerejian, however, gave Pujols a 23-year term, the maximum under his plea agreement.
“It was you who took it upon yourself to stick a knife in this man’s neck and stab him to death,” the judge said to Pujols. “You were the killer of Victor Garcia. And I don’t think hiding behind remorse now makes it any better.”
David Calviello, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor, said DeLeon’s brother was killed a few years ago in a gang-related attack, but even that did not persuade DeLeon to avoid gang activity.
Like Pujols, DeLeon pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and testified against Ramirez.
On Tuesday, Ramirez insisted that he took no part in the attack against Garcia.
“I want to say that at no time did I participate physically or emotionally in the death of Victor Garcia,” he said through a Spanish interpreter. “If I had, I would have admitted it.”
His attorney, Kevin Roe, said his client was “stupid” for being involved with the likes of Pujols and DeLeon: “They are evil; he is stupid,” Roe said.
Roe also asked for leniency for his client, saying the 24-year-old Ramirez had no other criminal conviction and that he led a law-abiding life.
Calviello, the assistant prosecutor, did not agree.
“Isn’t it relevant,” he asked, “that if you are in a gang, you are not living a law-abiding life?
“An innocent person is dead because of gang involvement, because of gang mentality.”
Email: markos@northjersey.com