The moment a jury foreman pronounced Jose “Boom Bat” Negrete guilty of ordering the killing of a gang “queen” Jeri Lynn Dotson and the near-strangulation of a gang turncoat Alex Ruiz in 2004, a single question danced in the minds of all those involved in what has become a decade-long ordeal.
Jose “Boom Bat” Negrete
Now that the whodunit aspect is settled, again, will this guilty verdict stand? It’s a fair question considering more than 10 years have elapsed since Negrete and several of his co-conspirators, holed up in his Brunswick Avenue residence, were rounded up by authorities in February 2005. In that time, Negrete had four trials, a span encompassing two Mercer County prosecutors.
Retired prosecutor Joe Bocchini was around for Negrete’s first three trials, which resulted in a hung jury and a guilty verdict, sandwiched around a trial that was scrapped shortly after jury selection. He was at Myrtle Beach Thursday when he received news of the guilty verdict.
“We went through one conviction, and we had the retrials,” Bocchini said, reflecting on the journey to get to this point. “The conviction here is very warranted; it was warranted the first time.
“It was nerve-wracking only to the extent that we knew he was guilty. We knew he deserved to be in jail. It was frustrating to go through the retrials. Negrete is where he belongs and should stay for the remainder of his days.”
While Bocchini had to settle for dialing up his former right-hand man, Acting Prosecutor Angelo Onofri had a firsthand look, seated a row behind Dotson’s family, keeping watch over them as the verdict was read.
For Onofri, it was symbolic. He’s the one who had the Dotson’s back over the years, asking them for patience and reassuring them when doubt crept in their minds as Negrete, the seemingly untouchable Inca, was granted a new trial when the appellate court overturned his life sentence because of juror misconduct.
Onofri wouldn’t comment on the specifics of how those conversations went with Dotson’s family, other than to say they were heartfelt.
“We were not going to rest until the offenders were brought to justice,” he said in a phone interview with The Trentonian. “I’m delighted that there’s closure for the families. They’ve been dealing with this for a considerable period of time.”
If justice is a metric, this is what prosecutors achieved as it relates to Negrete’s co-conspirators, all gleaned from the Department of Corrections: Angel Hernandez, life, for the execution-style murder of Dotson; Roberto “Bam Bam” Rodriguez, 10 years for strangling Ruiz with a Christmas ribbon, already released; Maurice Young, 17 years for aggravated manslaughter, with an expected release date of Aug. 10, 2019; Josue “Sway: Maldonado, 15 years for conspiracy, with an expected release date of July 30, 2022; Rhadames Acosta, 6 years for attempted murder, set for release Nov. 17, 2015; and Joey Martinez, released in August 2013 after a 10-year sentence for conspiracy.
Negrete, portrayed as the newly enshrined unquestioned leader who ruled with an iron first, was the big catch as Assistant Prosecutor John Boyle said in his opening statement the crimes fell “at the feet of Jose Negrete because it was all done on his orders.”
Negrete’s attorney, Jack Furlong, said he never bought the state’s theory about his client.
“He’s never going to get an award for being the most Machiavellian person,” Furlong said of Negrete. “The guy they described in the transcript was way more obsessive compulsive than the guy I met.”
Yet Boyle, admittedly “second banana,” and Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Tom Meidt took turns tag-teaming Negrete.
Bocchini called Boyle a “rising star” and a “little tiger.” Onofri said the duo worked tirelessly together on the case.
“My role was to provide any of the resources Tom and John needed, whether it was to bring the witnesses here. I had the absolute confidence that they would make sure justice was done.”
There were at least two people who walked away feeling justice was not done. Negrete, who has maintained his innocence the over the last 10 years. And Furlong, who immediately informed the court he will file a motion asking for a new trial. If that’s not fruitful, he will file an appeal, expected to be based on concerns that the proceedings devolved into a “trial by transcript” that deprived Negrete of his constitutional rights.
“The judge had to make a series of calls that would have challenged [Judge] Learned Hand,” Furlong said. “I’m unaware of any case in New Jersey or any other state of the union where the defendant faces the prospect of life in prison based on nothing more than a dramatic reading of self-serving testimony.”
Furlong then proceeded to slam the credibility of the state’s witnesses, saying the sheer number of Latin Kings gang members who were willing to testify against his client was mystifying, especially since their manifesto expressly frowned upon cooperation with authorities.
“In the old days, we used to say, ‘If crimes were committed in churches, we’d have choir boys for witnesses,” he said. “The alternative is if crimes were committed at Yankee Stadium, we’d have 6,000 eyes. But crimes tend to be committed behind closed doors.
“When a witness has an allegiance higher than the criminal justice system, you’re gong to run into a brick wall 9 times out of 10,” he said. “It was kind of surprising how many of those members of the Latin Kings gave statements the first day. At the end of the day, the people I meet who claim to be gang affiliated are just kids trying to be tougher than they are and sometimes they have access to guns.”
In the end, the kids with guns did a lot of damage and caused a lot of grief.
“What happened in the past is what happened in the past,” Bocchini said. “Whatever appeals, we’ll wait and see. From my outside view, I don’t think there is any irreversible error.”