By Brian Lee TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
A Southbridge man who admitted paying a cousin to kill his ex-girlfriend in the Bronx will be sentenced March 22, according to a spokesman for Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson.
Carlos Cruz, 38, admitted to first-degree murder on June 11 but, faced with a life sentence without parole, he filed a motion withdrawing his guilty plea Oct. 6, the date originally set for sentencing.
On Thursday a judge denied the motion, said Melvin Hernandez, Mr. Johnson’s spokesman.
Alleged triggerman Devon Miller, 27, of the Bronx is also charged with first-degree murder, and jury selection in that case begins Tuesday, Mr. Hernandez said.
On April 13, 2008, 18-year-old Chelsea M. Frazier of Southbridge was shot to death while in a car with her 14-month-old baby in the Bronx in New York City.
Mr. Cruz, the father of the baby, Alijah, who’s now 3, was sitting in the front passenger seat. He got out of the car and told the alleged killer to shoot him in the leg to make the killing look like a robbery, prosecutors have said.
Assistant District Attorney Allen Karen had said Mr. Cruz admitted paying Mr. Miller $700 to kill Miss Frazier because she no longer wanted to have an intimate relationship with him.
On the day of the killing, the prosecutor had said, Mr. Cruz persuaded Miss Frazier to drive to the Bronx with him and their son under the guise of a shopping trip to buy clothes for the toddler.
Miss Frazier was shot several times while sitting behind the steering wheel of her car. Detectives recovered several shell casings on the floor by the back seat, where the toddler was strapped into a car seat.
A grand jury indicted Mr. Cruz and Mr. Miller five days after the killing.
Robin Snow, Miss Frazier’s mother, who is raising Alijah, said Friday the district attorney is pushing for life without parole.
“It’s better this way because he gets to stew in his cell and think about what he did for the rest of his life,” Ms. Snow said.
Mr. Cruz’s stepmother, Robin G. Cruz, had said Harvey Slovis of New York was fired as Mr. Cruz’s lawyer. She claimed Mr. Cruz had not pleaded guilty, and it was Mr. Slovis’ doing, a suggestion Ms. Snow found preposterous.
“Would you do it if somebody said you have to plead guilty to murder one?” she asked.
The June guilty plea threw the family off guard, Ms. Snow said.
“I took it that he was finally feeling remorse for what he did to my daughter,” she said. “That wasn’t the case.”
Ms. Snow said her daughter often spoke of how Mr. Cruz neglected her, although the teen never spoke of physical abuse.
Two family members will be able to speak during the sentencing. Another of Ms. Snow’s daughters is writing a statement on behalf of the family, Ms. Snow said.
“If I can work up the courage to read a poem on behalf of my daughter, I’m going to do that,” she said. “Right now I’m tough; I can’t wait to look (him) in the eye. When I get there it might be something different. I’ve been waiting and waiting to make eye contact with him, because he was totally somebody else in front of me. He always was trying to impress me, always.”
She said Alijah, who looks just like his mother, is a “Band-Aid holding me together.”
“I have to do it for him,” she said. “Stay strong.”
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