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As Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer said during yesterday’s sentencing, Carrero had a choice when he came face-to-face with Jose Hall — whose friend, Corey Hicks, was living with Carrero’s girlfriend.
To that point, Carrero had been jealous and abusive to Lowenstein, she said. He was so controlling, Grootenboer said, that he moved into the home a week earlier.
The murder followed an argument he had with Hall, 21, over Hicks, Lowenstein’s ex-lover, she said.
Fernando Carrero during yesterday’s sentencing (STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
“There was a door in the kitchen. He could have left,” the prosecutor told Roma. “He stayed because he wanted to kill Jose Hall — and further, he wanted to shoot him in the face.
“Jose Hall was murdered because he spoke to somebody’s girlfriend.”
Carrero’s lawyer contended during the trial that the .357 Magnum that his client brought to Kerri Lynn Lowenstein’s home that November 2007 day went off during a struggle.
But as Roma himself pointed out, a shot to the stomach had already put Hall down when Carrero shot the defenseless victim in the head — the same as a hit man would do.
Lowenstein testified during the trial that she “heard a shot, ran into the kitchen and tried to wrestle the gun away from Carrero,” Grootenboer said during yesterday’s sentencing.
Then Carrero “shot Hall point-blank in the head,” she said.
“He is just one of those people who has chosen his path, and the only thing for the rest of us to do is put him away so he can’t hurt anyone else,” the prosecutor said.
Roma agreed.
Carrero, 23, could have left through the kitchen door, the judge said, but he instead “chose to shoot the victim twice from 12 to 18 inches away.”
As for the contention from Carrero’s attorney that he was only 17 at the time and should be spared a life sentence, Roma said: “Being young doesn’t make you any less vicious.”
The judge previously heard from several of Hall’s loved ones — his mother, father and brother, among them — who spoke of the impact his death had on their family.
“He was my first born, a combination of me and his dad,” Hall’s mother said. “I loved him, taught him, disciplined him and followed him for 21 years. I could not have asked for a better son than Jose.”
“His family has suffered too,” added his aunt, Cornice Baskerville. “I forgive Mr. Carrero, but I will never forget what he has done.”
His father, Newark Police Officer Jose Sosa, told Roma that he suffers nightmares from the slaughter.
Yet he also recalled his son’s warm and comical nature, his determination to dedicate his life to public service and his desire to be an organ donor.
“When I’m with Jose’s little brothers, 11 and 6 years old, we always talk about Jose,” he said. “And my little boy’s smile turns into a frown when he says ‘I wish my brother was back with us. I miss him so much’.”
Hall’s 24-year-old brother, Edward, was the last to speak. He described how Jose inspired him to join the Marine Corps and then become a New Jersey corrections officer.
“He was beautiful inside and outside, and he showed it,” Hall said.
Several of Carrero’s friends and relatives attended the sentencing, sitting on the opposite side of the courtroom. Roma offered them the opportunity to speak, as well.
None accepted, however.
Nor did Carrero who, when asked by the judge, said: “No comment.”
“The defendant has succeeded in destroying two families,” Roma concluded.
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STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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