CIVIC CENTER — Elliot Morales, convicted of shooting a gay man at point-blank range in Greenwich Village in 2013, was sentenced on Tuesday to 40 years to life in state prison.
Morales, 36, hurled anti-gay slurs at Mark Carson and Carson's best friend in the early morning hours of May 18, 2013, before shooting Carson in the face.
"As we mourn the lives lost in Orlando, we remain committed to doing everything we can to combat and prevent crimes against LGBT New Yorkers," Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement on Tuesday.
"New Yorkers of all sexual orientations and gender expressions have an inviolable right to walk safely through our communities without being taunted, shot, or killed," he continued. "I hope that this sentence provides some measure of comfort to the victim’s loved ones.”
Morales' night began on May 17, 2013, with him getting scolded by a restaurant employee on Barrow Street for urinating outside the eatery. Morales followed the employee into the restaurant and threatened several people at the restaurant's bar, flashing a .38-caliber handgun.
Morales encountered Carson just after midnight near West Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue, where he began screaming at the young gay man. After shooting Carson, Morales fled, but was spotted by a police officer on West Third Street.
The officer ordered Morales to stop, but Morales crouched down, took out his gun and pointed it at the officer. When Morales fumbled with the gun for a moment, the officer was able to subdue him.
Morales fired several of his defense attorneys over the course of his trial, and tried to argue that he could not be convicted of a hate crime because he was bisexual.
Ultimately he was convicted of murder in the second degree as a hate crime, four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, 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.
