Detective: N.Y. hate-death suspect admitted killing

RIVERHEAD, New York -- A Long Island teenager admitted in a five-page confession that he inflicted the fatal blow that killed an Ecuadorean immigrant targeted for violence simply because of his ethnicity, the lead detective who investigated the killing testified Monday.

Prosecutors say the November 2008 stabbing of Marcelo Lucero was the culmination of a campaign of violence by a group of Long Island teens against Hispanics.

Suffolk County Police Detective John McLeer testified Monday that Jeffrey Conroy told him during questioning in a precinct house hours after Lucero died that he had stabbed him. Conroy also signed off on a five-page written statement admitting he was responsible for inflicting the fatal blow, the detective testified. McLeer said he wrote the statement over several hours of questioning Conroy, but said the teen reviewed it and initialed several changes.

"I stabbed him once in the shoulder, I think," McLeer quoted Conroy as saying. He said the teen described the events that led to Lucero's killing calmly; "He was cooperative, matter of fact."

Conroy, 18, has pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter as a hate crime and other charges. He is the only one of seven teens accused of murder because prosecutors contend he was the one who inflicted the fatal blow.

Four other teens involved in the killing already have pleaded to hate crime related charges; two others are awaiting trial.

McLeer also testified that when he initially began questioning Conroy about the crime, the former Patchogue-Medford High School student's prime concern was how his arrest would affect his wrestling season. "I said, 'Jeff, we're from the homicide squad, forget about wrestling right now,'" the detective said.

The Lucero case has focused attention on the animosity between the largely white population that settled on Long Island after World War II and a growing influx of Hispanics, many from Central and South America suspected of illegally entering the United States.

Lucero, 37, was walking with a friend near the Patchogue train station around midnight when they were confronted by the teenagers, who prosecutors say were strolling around town looking for targets.

Last week, a co-defendant testified that Conroy confided in him that he had stabbed Lucero.

"He was walking past me and he said: 'We gotta go.' He said he stabbed him," Nicholas Hausch testified. Hausch, who was the first of the suspects to plead guilty to hate crime charges, said he and the others implored Conroy to ditch the knife, but Conroy told them he had washed it off in a puddle, assuring them it had been cleaned.

On cross-examination, McLeer conceded that Conroy answered all the detective's questions and conceded there were no witnesses who heard Conroy use racial epithets. Defense attorney William Keahon asked why McLeer never asked his client about a motive for the stabbing.

"I believe a person's actions speak to their intent," McLeer said.

McLeer, whose cross-examination continues Tuesday, was expected to be the final prosecution witness in the trial, which is entering its fourth week.