Wasted Talent

Wasted Talent

St. Ray and Goldman Sachs alum guns down dealer over $35

#NYPD #GoldmanSachs #StRaymonds

BRONX, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 13- District Attorney Robert Johnson announces the conviction of Alexis Sanchez for the murder of 42-year-old Stephen Mari. 

Following a two-week long trial and a day-and-a half-long deliberation, a jury on February 11th found Sanchez guilty of: murder in the second Degree (Class A Felony) and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (Class C Violent Felony).

Sanchez was a graduate of St. Raymond’s High School in the Bronx and employed as a computer tech at Goldman Sachs.  Sanchez was also a drug addict. But by November 2, 2011 he had been out of that job for a few weeks and looking to score heroin from his regular dealer, Stephen Mari.

Sanchez was going to be $35 short on a $180 drug deal. So he lured Mari into the alleyway between 1523 and 1525 Purdy Street near Parkchester. That is where he took a .380 semi-automatic handgun and shot at Mari eight times, hitting him with six of those bullets, severing his victim’s spleen, intestines, lung, spinal cord, with one of those bullets entering the 42-year-old father’s head and brain. 

The shooter then left his dealer to die in that alleyway, which was just a half block from his old high school. Speeding off in his mother’s SUV, Sanchez would remain at large for another nine months, thinking he had gotten away with murder. Once under arrest, Sanchez gave a video statement to Bronx Assistant D.A. Joshua Gradinger in which he recreated his version of the events with Detective Robert Schlosser of the 43rd Precinct (still from video below).

At trial, Sanchez claimed Mari had kidnapped him because of the money shortfall, that the dealer had pulled a gun, and that he had wrestled it from the much larger man, reluctantly firing eight times. But those facts were refuted by a forensic pathologist who took the stand and other testimony during trial, and ultimately disbelieved by the jury.0

Sanchez faces up to 40 years to life in prison. He will be sentenced on March 6, 2015 before Justice Margaret Clancy, Bronx Supreme Court.