Tuesday night’s arraignments in criminal court resulted in the trio accused of killing a struggling father on a Bronx D train being jailed without bail. The man who squeezed the trigger claimed the slaying was in self defense.
On Monday, Alfredo Trinidad, 42, Betty Cotto, 38, and Justin Herde, 24 were taken into custody by NYPD officers and agents affiliated with the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force.
In connection with the passing of Bronx father Alfredo William Alvarez, who had a long criminal history, they were accused of murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Prosecutors stated that the guy was killed by the group at 4:05 a.m. on Friday on a train headed toward Manhattan at Fordham St. The gun was purchased by Trinidad in Orlando, Florida, last year.
During their arraignments in Bronx Criminal Court, Cotto and Trinidad’s attorneys did not present any defense. After being shot in the torso on a northbound “D” train in the Bronx on Friday, a 45-year-old man was declared dead at Saint Barnabas Hospital.
According to Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Rosenblum, Trinidad “gave the gun to one of the co-defendants, Justin Herde, to carry when they were out because he didn’t want to get caught with said gun.” (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News).
Herde said he was carrying the gun for Trinidad when he pulled the trigger, killing Alvarez, according to the prosecution. Peter Laumann, a lawyer for Legal Aid who defended Herde at the court, said Herde says he shot Alvarez in self-defense.
According to reports, there was a fight that wasn’t one-sided between Herde and a bigger person, who practically dragged Herde back aboard the train during the attack, according to Laumann.
“There’s an altercation that wasn’t a one-way altercation with somebody who’s significantly larger than Mr. Herde who, on information, literally drags Mr. Herde back onto the train during an assault,” Laumann said. After their arraignments, they were all jailed without bail.
Trinidad gave the murder weapon to a 14-year-old boy who was arrested with it following the train incident, according to the prosecution. Over the weekend, Alvarez’s family grieved for him. His two children’s mother, Erica Estremera, his ex-wife, told the Daily News, “He meant everything to us.”
It’s terrible that this incident occurred in New York City transit, and I find it hard to accept. It isn’t even secure. According to police sources, Alvarez has been arrested 25 times in the city before for theft, drug offenses, and grand larceny. He served 22 months in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl in 1997 when he was 19 years old, and for that offense, he is listed on the s*x offender registry.
He was last released in May 2018 after being convicted of attempted burglary and possessing stolen property. He later went back to prison. Michael Kemper, the NYPD’s transit chief, stated on Monday that the investigation was still underway by declining to comment on whether Trinidad, Cotto, or Herde knew their victim.
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