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Jurors in Hackensack needed five hours of deliberation to convict the 73-year-old Perez on Friday, April 5, for stabbing Omar Cruz, 64, to death behind the Ulta Beauty store on the Maywood side of the Bergen Town Center on Feb. 16, 2021.
The jury rejected a murder conviction, which required premeditated intent, and instead found Perez, of North Bergen, guilty of aggravated manslaughter, along with hindering apprehension, following a seven-week trial.
Maywood police found Cruz with multiple stab wounds. He died at Hackensack University Medical Center later that evening.
Ten years earlier the Cuban-born Perez robbed a TD Bank branch in Weehawken and a customer of roughly $10,000 at gunpoint. He served nearly six years in federal prison before being released in March 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Chief Assistant Bergen County Prosecutors Anthony Talarico and Ricky Ruddy secured the verdicts with the assistance of Detective Natalia Navarro and legal clerk Merci Menses, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
Musella thanked them while commending the detectives of his Major Crimes Unit along with Maywood and Paramus police and the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.
Superior Court Judge Susan J. Steele scheduled sentencing for May 30.
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