FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Brooklyn Man Convicted for Fatally Stabbing Rival
Victim and Defendant Both Dated the Same Woman
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that a 23-year-old man has been convicted of manslaughter for stabbing to death a 22-year-old man in East New York during an altercation stemming from the allegation that they were both dating the same woman. The defendant and the woman fled to Mexico after the stabbing.
District Attorney Thompson said, “This is just another tragic instance of young men caught up in senseless violence, which cost one man his life and now the other his freedom.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Christian Morales, 23, of East New York, Brooklyn. He was today convicted of first-degree manslaughter following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog. The defendant will be sentenced on June 23, 2016, at which time he faces up to 25 years in prison.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on June 18, 2014 at about 4 p.m., the victim, Carlos Santos, and two friends were on Liberty Avenue in East New York when Santos confronted the defendant, wanting to fight him; the defendant took out a knife and swung at Santos, hitting him in the right eye and continued to swing the knife while Santos tried to protect his face, hitting him in the arms and hands. Santos ran away into a nearby store and the defendant ran in after him, stabbing him once in the right chest. Santos’ friends were able to get the defendant off of him and the defendant and his girlfriend walked away. Santos was taken to the hospital, where he later died.
The defendant and his girlfriend fled to Mexico. He was arrested in Mexico and extradited following an investigation.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Sara Kurtzberg of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Kenneth Taub, Chief.
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