Latin Kings leader Jose “Boom Bat” Negrete was convicted Thursday for his role in the summer 2004 slaying of gang “queen” Jeri Lynn Dotson and botched murder attempt of gang turncoat Alex Ruiz, drawing a presumed close to a case that spanned more than a decade and required several jury panels to decide a verdict.
Jose “Boom Bat” Negrete
Security was tight with a dozen sheriff officers on hand as Dotson’s family and several members of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, including Acting Prosecutor Angelo Onofri, crammed inside the Mercer County courtroom to listen as a jury of eight women and four men who had deliberated for three days returned guilty verdicts to counts of conspiracy, murder and attempted murder against Negrete, the Latin Kings Inca who was on trial for the fourth time for ordering the killing of Dotson to ensure her silence.
The jury also agreed Negrete was guilty of attempted murder related to the near-strangulation of Ruiz, who was ordered handed over by Negrete to the rival Ñetas after his defection to the Latin Kings sparked a war between the factions.
Linda Dotson, the victim’s mother, gasped and embraced a family member as the jury foreman read the guilty verdict. It was a moment the family had lived in 2009 when Negrete was convicted on all charges only to see the appellate court overturn an 80-year sentence because of jury misconduct. They left the courtroom without speaking to reporters.
Negrete remained seated next to his attorney, Jack Furlong, as the verdict was read. Furlong said after the verdict was read he would file a motion for a new trial which will delay sentencing. Judge Pedro Jimenez revoked Negrete’s $2 million bail and set a hearing on the new trial motion for May 29.
If the motion is denied, Furlong plans to appeal.
As he was shackled and led away, he turned to the back of the courtroom and blew his wife a kiss.
Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Tom Meidt, who handled the case from its inception, acknowledged the difficulties trying the case, adding that he hopes the verdict brings the Dotson’s family some solace.
“I’ve never been involved in a case like this,” Meidt said. “It didn’t feel right to hand it over to someone else.”
Furlong said his client was deprived of his constitutional right to confront some of the Latin Kings co-conspirators who testified against him in exchange for plea bargains. In fairness, most of them refused to testify, unconvinced by the prospect of being jailed for contempt. The state supplemented the lack of witness cooperation with transcripts of the gang members’ testimony from previous trials.
“For the first time in recorded history, the state was able to lay down with dogs and not get up with fleas,” Furlong said.
Prosecutors said at trial Negrete was enraged after the Ñetas did not kill Ruiz and ordered his henchmen to finish him.
Prosecutor said Dotson fell into Negrete’s cross-hairs because she witnessed Ruiz’s abduction. She was shot in the head execution-style by convicted killer Angel Hernandez in the basement of her Chestnut Street apartment on orders from Negrete.
Dotson’s allegiance was already in doubt as she was suspected of feeding information to cops or the rival Ñetas and could not be trusted after she was several Latin Kings members lure Ruiz, her roommate, from the home they shared, prosecutors said.
Ruiz was choked out and left for dead in dumpster on Duck Island, but he survived. Gang member and deposed Inca Roberto “Bam Bam” Rodriguez testified earlier he and three other gang members were sent to Dotson’s house Aug. 30, 2004 with the intent of beating Ruiz. That changed once they arrived and he said he heard Negrete give the order to take out Ruiz.