The hate crime suspect who is accused of fatally shooting a 32-year-old gay man in Greenwich Village in 2013 allegedly confessed to his crime on camera after the shooting. Jurors were shown cellphone footage of suspect Elliot Morales, 36, in the immediate aftermath of allegedly shooting 32-year-old Mark Carson. "I f-king shot him dead!” Morales can be heard saying in the clip to cops while laughing to himself. "Diagnosis dead, doctor!...They don’t teach you that in the academy, right?"
You can see/hear the footage below, via the Post:
Morales has been acting as his own attorney while on trial for the May 18th, 2013 incident. Carson and his friend Danny Robinson, whom Morales cross-examined earlier this week, were walking on West 8th Street that evening when a drunken Morales allegedly initiated hostilities by saying to them, "What are you, gay wrestlers?" and calling them "fa--ots" and "queers."
After a heated exchange, Morales walked around the corner onto Eight Street and the two men followed. Seconds later, Morales allegedly took out a Taurus .38-caliber gun and shot Carson in the head. Another officer, Henry Huot, saw Morales running and was able to tackle him on West 3rd Street.
Other witnesses testified this week that Morales was running amok earlier in the evening before the fatal confrontation, with one local restaurant manager testifying that Morales had urinated on the front window of his restaurant, yelled homophobic slurs at his staff, and threatened a bartender with his gun.
According to Officer Michael Morrin, who took the video when he arrived at the scene, Morales told him, "I shot him dead. He deserved it. He was acting tough in front of his bitch." After he said that, Morrin took out his phone to start recording him. "Officer, does that seem like normal behavior to you?" Morales asked Morrin. "To my standards, no," the cop replied.
Morales has been charged with murder as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon. According to the News, Morales's defense strategy has been to argue he was too drunk at the time to have intended to kill Carson.
