The mother of a slain 15-year-old boy has agreed to not sit in on her son’s murder trial after having two emotional outbursts which have halted court proceedings and threatened a mistrial.
WPIX reported that Leandra Feliz will watch a live stream of the high-profile trial from another courtroom. The agreement, made between Feliz and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, came days after she was barred from court Tuesday for yelling out as a key witness testified about one of her son’s accused murderer’s gang affiliations.
According to the news outlet, Michael “Sosa” Reyes, testified Tuesday that one of the suspects Danilo Payamps Pacheco, wasn’t a member of the Trinitarios gang at the time of last year’s slaying. Pacheco, who’s accused of being in the car with Reyes as they tracked down Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, will stand trial on second-degree murder charges later this year.
Reyes’ claims sparked outrage from the slain boy’s mom, as she believed Reyes was trying to “clean up” Pacheco’s image.
“You killed my boy!” Feliz reportedly hollered several times in Spanish. “It wasn’t any neighbor’s son.”
The outburst led Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary oust Feliz from court for the day. A lawyer for one of the five defendants, Amy Attias, not only requested a mistrial but asked for Feliz to be indefinitely banned from the courtroom.
“She walked out in front of the jury, completely inappropriate. She showed this court she can no longer [be here],” Attias told the judge while jurors took a lunch break, according to the New York Post.
All 14 suspects are reportedly members of the Sures set of the Trinitarios gang. They’re believed to have targeted Guzman-Feliz because they believed he was affiliated with a rival gang responsible for shooting one of their members two days earlier. However, police have said the teen’s murder was a case of mistaken identity.
Late last month, Feliz reportedly had an emotional breakdown while the court viewed Guzman-Feliz’s final moments. WPIX reported that officers removed her from the courtroom after she cried out while footage played of the teen holding his fatal neck wound.
Thursday’s court proceedings began with a defense attorney’s cross-examination of Reyes. Prosecutors offered to drop a manslaughter charge against Reyes if he testifies. They had offered another suspect, Kevin Alvarez, time served for his testimony in this and subsequent trials.
[Featured image: Leandra Feliz, Lesandro Guzman-Feliz/Facebook]
