By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A man charged with taking a terminally-ill man's cane and beating him to to death with it on Christmas morning two years ago went to trial Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Geronimo Velez, 29, was partying with two friends in the early morning hours of Dec. 25, 2008, when they allegedly began harassing 50-year-old Candido Corporan at a bodega in Morningside Heights.
They followed Corporan, who was HIV positive and addicted to drugs, into a yard in the Grant Houses complex on Amsterdam Avenue, where Velez and his friends began beating and robbing the disabled man, according to prosecutors.
The trio was caught on video entering an apartment building in the complex after Corporan was attacked, but the incident itself was not captured on camera.
Velez's attorney, Kevin Canfield, argued in opening statements that Velez did not participate in the beating, and added that Velez was very drunk at the time of the incident.
Canfield said that Velez encouraged the real killer, his friend Michael Rutledge, to leave the "old man" alone.
"Mr. Velez may be a drunk, a pothead, a smoker, but he's not a murderer," he added.
Testimony in what is expected to be a week-long trial will begin on Wednesday.
