By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A resentful former Washington Heights barber was convicted Wednesday of killing the shop's new owner and injuring several others after opening fire in an act of jealous rage.
A Manhattan jury found Eddy Espinal, 44, guilty on all counts, which included murder, attempted murder and assault charges.
Espinal had been the previous proprietor of what became Franklin and Ernesto's barber shop at 1577 St. Nicholas Ave, but he was evicted for failing to pay rent.
He lost a small claims lawsuit against the new owners, a claim that a judge ruled irrelevant.
But Espinal pledged to get revenge on his own — and he did on Oct. 9, 2005.
"I told you what would happen if you didn't pay me," Espinal allegedly said as he gunned down the store's new boss, Julio Ernesto Filpo in front of a small child receiving a hair cut.
He also injured Franklin Radney, the co-owner and a patron before trying to flee the scene.
Espinal was identified by various witnesses, including a police officer on foot patrol directly across the street from the business who was within earshot of the gunfire.
The police officer testified that he saw Espinal trying to escape the bloody barber shop scene.
As he ran south, Espinal threw a .357 caliber pistol, a drawstring bag and his sweatshirt to the pavement, prosecutors said in opening statements.
"This was an intentional, brutal attack, fueled by vengeance," District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said in a statement on Wednesday.
Despite being deemed unfit for trial twice, the killer refused to let his lawyers use an "extreme emotional disturbance" defense, which would have reduced his maximum prison sentence from life to 25 years.
His sentencing is scheduler for May 19.
