73°
Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma said that’s when he’ll rule on a request by imprisoned gang leader Juan “King Black Rose” Rosario for a new trial in the shooting death of 18-year Ralph Pinto of Hasbrouck Heights in Lodi.
The motion for a new trial was made by defense attorney Susan Gyss, who said both Rosario’s trial attorney, Donald Liberman, and the lawyer who represented him in appellate court were “inexperienced.”
Rosario, 53, was convicted of murdering Pinto in 2005 and sentenced to 20 years in prison in September, 2011.
Juan “King Black Rose” Rosario
(STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
He is also serving 20 years at Trenton State Prison for the attempted murder the same night of Monica Penalba, who was stabbed 35 times and run over twice with her own car after witnessing Pinto’s murder — leaving her with only one eye and partial use of her arm.
Rosario is also serving two terms of five years each for separate incidents of threatening to kill Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Fantuzzi — once when he who vowed in open court in November 2007 to put a bomb in her car and then when he repeated the threat to a detective at the Hudson County Jail.
Rosario was brought into court yesterday amid heavy security, including two state Department of Corrections officers in bulletproof vests and several Bergen County Sheriff’s officers.
Pinto and another man purportedly stole $20,000 from Rosario, a notorious leader of the Latin Kings, prompting the revenge killing.
At Rosario’s direction, several gang members kidnapped Pinto a day after the Hasbrouck Heights teen and a friend beat a Latin Kings leader and snatched money from his safe, prosecutors said.
After luring Pinto to a Lodi parking lot, where they intended to kidnap him at gunpoint, crew members shot and killed Pinto as he tried to wrestle away the weapon.
Rosario then ordered a hit on Penalba, 19, who witnessed the killing, they said.
Gyss raised several issues from the original trial, most notably Rosario’s “statement” to police. It wasn’t clear he was under arrest at the time and there was no signed complaint, she argued.
As a result, Gyss said, Rosario’s attorneys “didn’t seem to know what to do with it.”
She also said the trial was rife with hearsay testimony that should have been contested in Rosario’s appeal and expert testimony on gang culture that should’ve been reviewed by the Appellate Court but wasn’t in the appeal.
Those defendants who testified on gang culture, the meaning of gang “codes,” and whether Rosario had to be present to be involved in the killing had competing interests, Gyss said.
“All of this should have been subjected to appellate review,” she said.
She added: “Mr. Rosario is primarily concerned trial counsel never questioned the medical examiner about the manner of Pinto’s death – what happened to the body of Ralph Pinto between the time he was shot and when he arrived at a hospital.”
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Foddai said, that Pinto’s friend, Paul Ricciardi, “testified that he tried to call 911 and there was no service,” so he drove Pinto to what was then Hackensack Hospital.
Foddai also said that Rosario “came to talk to the police,” at which point they “gave him a Miranda warning and told him he was under arrest immediately.”
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.
