Hector Gonzalez

The Crime

In the early morning hours of Dec. 2, 1995, a brawl erupted at the Con Sabor Latino Lounge on Third Avenue and 7th Street in Brooklyn that culminated in the murder of 27-year-old Lemuel “Lenny” Cruz.

Witnesses told the police that a fight broke out on the dance floor and that 10 to 15 members of the Latin Kings street gang attacked Mr. Cruz. He managed to escape the nightclub and was told to run, but stayed to wait for some friends who were still inside. At that moment, several gang members emerged from a side door and attacked him again, this time fatally.

Upon arrival, police were directed toward about 10 people who were walking away from the nightclub and ordered everyone to stand against a wall. A witness identified four young men as participants in the beating, including 19-year-old Hector Gonzalez.

On Dec. 28, Mr. Gonzalez and four other men were indicted on charges of second-degree murder and illegal use of weapons.

The Trial

In September 1996, the men went to trial in Kings County Supreme Court. A serologist testified that the blood stains on Mr. Gonzalez’s pants contained the same blood group marker as Mr. Cruz’s blood type. However, he also conceded that the marker was present in more than half of the population.

Several witnesses testified that they saw Mr. Gonzalez involved in the fight, though they did not specify seeing him kill Mr. Cruz.

On Oct. 3, 1996, the jury convicted Mr. Gonzalez and three other men of second-degree murder and weapons charges. The fifth defendant was acquitted, as he was the only person who did not have blood on his clothing consistent with that of Mr. Cruz. Mr. Gonzalez was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. The other three men received sentences between 20 years to life in prison. 

The Exoneration

Two years earlier in 1994, the U.S. Attorney’s office, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department, had begun a narcotics trafficking investigation of the Latin Kings street gang. 

In June 1998, several witnesses cooperating in the federal investigation told the authorities that gang members Melvin Garcia, Gregory Pirrone, and Eduardo Velez had murdered Mr. Cruz. Subsequently, the three men pleaded guilty in federal court to narcotics trafficking and to the murder of Mr. Cruz as part of a racketeering charge.

Two of the cooperating witnesses asserted that Mr. Gonzalez was not involved in the brawl. When federal authorities interviewed him, he reaffirmed his innocence and told them that the blood on his clothes belonged to two injured men whom he had tended to.

In July 1991, attorney Glenn Garber, along with the Innocence Project, took on Mr. Gonzalez’s case and sought DNA testing of the clothing.

The testing was conducted by the FBI and in November 2001, the DNA tests on Mr. Gonzalez’s clothing confirmed that the blood did not come from Mr. Cruz, but from the two men that Mr. Gonzalez said he helped. 

On April 24, 2002, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office requested that Mr. Gonzalez’s convictions be vacated. The motion was granted, the charges were dismissed, and Mr. Gonzalez was released. In February 2020, Christian Pacheco, one of the other men convicted in the murder of Mr. Cruz, also had his conviction vacated.

After Mr. Gonzalez was released, he filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that was settled in 2008 by the City of New York for $3.4 million. He also received $1.8 million in compensation from the New York Court of Claims.