By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A resentful ex-barber snuck into his old Washington Heights shop in late 2005 with a pistol hidden in his hooded sweatshirt and a simple deadly message, prosecutors said in opening arguments Tuesday.
"I told you what would happen if you didn't pay me," Eddy Espinal, 44, allegedly said, before opening fire at four men, including a rival barber and his old partner, while a little boy getting a haircut at the St. Nicholas Avenue shop looked on.
Rival barber Julio Ernesto Filpo died from a bullet wound to the head during the bloodbath on Oct. 9, 2005, while Espinal's old partner Franklin Radney survived a shot to his stomach, prosecutor Tom Schiels told the court.
Espinal had spent months seething as he watched Radney and Filpo, who teamed up to take over his failed business, turn it into a thriving barber shop.
He'd warned the owners that they would "pay in blood" if they didn't cough up compensation he'd previously demanded in a small claims lawsuit against the new owners of the barber shop at 1577 St. Nicholas Ave., Schiels said in his opening statement.
A judge awarded him no money in the case, so Espinal pursued violent retaliation instead, the prosecutor added.
As he fled the bloody barber shop scene, Espinal threw a .357 caliber pistol, a drawstring bag and his sweatshirt to the pavement, prosecutors said.
A police officer on foot patrol across the street heard the shots and saw Espinal bolt from the scene, Schiels said. Prosecutors said he was caught within minutes of the incident, which occurred about 3 p.m., and was quickly identified by neighborhood witnesses and survivors.
Despite the strong case against him, Espinal, who was deemed unfit for trial twice, has refused to use a psychiatric defense his lawyer believes would be available to him and reduce his time in prison if he's convicted.
"He won't allow us as a defense team to utilize the defense of 'extreme emotional disturbance,' which reduces murder to manslaughter," attorney Daniel Gotlin said.
Espinal could still change his mind at any point in the trial and invoke a psychiatric defense, which could reduce his maximum prison sentence from life to 25 years.
There was no opening statement on Espinal's behalf Tuesday.
Testimony is scheduled to begin Thursday morning.
