GREENWICH VILLAGE — Elliot Morales, 36, was found guilty on Wednesday of murder as a hate crime for the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Mark Carson nearly three years ago.
Morales shot Carson in the face at close range on West Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue in May 2013, in what the Manhattan district attorney described as an execution-style killing.
Morales "targeted and executed a defenseless young man based on his sexual orientation after taunting and insulting the victim and his companion," Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance said in a statement.
Morales had passed Carson and his friend earlier in the night on May 17 and said, "Look at you f——ts, you look like gay wrestlers," according to a criminal complaint.
He followed the pair around the corner and continued badgering them with homophobic slurs, adding, "You want to die tonight?"
He ultimately asked Carson, "You with him?" When Carson replied yes, Morales shot him in the head with a .38-caliber revolver.
Carson was left fatally brain damaged.
Morales fled after firing the gun, but was spotted within minutes by a police officer, who shouted at him to stop. Morales instead crouched down and pointed his gun at the officer, but fumbled, giving the officer time to grab him and restrain him.
Morales told police he shot him because Carson "was trying to act tough" and he claimed he was not homophobic.
"I don’t have a problem with gay people. I have lots of gays in my life,” he told police in a statement made after his May 18 arrest.
Three more gay men were attacked in as many days after Carson's shooting, which was believed to be the 22nd hate crime murder in New York that year.
It brought the total to nearly double the year before, and drew national attention and a public condemnation from the Human Rights Campaign.
Carson was described by friends as someone who had experienced discrimination before and "handled it with grace."
Morales had threatened others earlier in the night on May 17, after an restaurant employee scolded him for urinating outside a Barrow Street eatery. Morales followed the man back into the restaurant and threatened people at the bar verbally while showing off his gun.
Morales fired multiple lawyers over the course of his trial and insisted on representing himself. One of his lawyers had floated an insanity plea early on.
Morales is expected to be sentenced on April 11, the DA said.
He faces a minimum of 20 years in prison, but could spend the rest of his life in jail, for the top charge of murder in the second degree as a hate crime.
He was also convicted of four counts of criminal possession of a weapon, menacing a police officer and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree — all felonies — as well as menacing in the second degree, a misdemeanor. It's up to the sentencing judge whether to add prison time for those charges.
