WILKES-BARRE — A witness who said he was present during a heated cocaine deal between shooting victim Jorge Marrero and his alleged killer made the incident up and was one of several people to lie about the case under oath, the suspect claimed Friday in his homicide trial.
Rafael Mora-Polanco, 28, is facing the charge on allegations he shot Marrero, 35, six times in the streets outside a Hazleton apartment on June 11, 2015. The shooting came days after a drug deal in which Mora-Polanco believed Marrero and another drug dealer, Divine Herrera-Caudle, were trying to rip him off over an eight ball of cocaine, prosecutors allege.
Herrera-Caudle told jurors Thursday that he and Marrero planned to “flip” the cocaine, using the money they got from selling it to pay Mora-Polanco for the drugs. Mora-Polanco, he said, became “very aggressive” during the deal, took the drugs back and warned, “I got something for you two (expletive). I got something for you and (Marrero).”
Mora-Polanco, however, denied the incident ever happened.
“He (Herrera-Caudle) fabricated this whole incident about me making a transaction with the victim,” Mora-Polanco said.
Mora-Polanco wasn’t done challenging the testimony of those who took the stand against him.
He went on to claim eyewitnesses Paula Shafer, her daughter, Joline Shafer, Kristen Lanzot and Tammy Grose — four women who said they were present in the Alter Street apartment Marrero and Mora-Polanco had exited shortly before gunfire erupted outside — lied under oath when they identified him as the shooter.
Marrero’s then-girlfriend, Jaime Bonner, as well as two Luzerne County prison inmates who testified that Mora-Polanco had them write and attempt to mail out a letter in his name, were liars too, he said.
“According to you, a lot of people who took the witness stand in this trial committed perjury,” Assistant District Attorney Dan Zola said during cross-examination.
“I would say so, yes,” Mora-Polanco said.
When asked by Zola why so many witnesses would come into the courtroom and lie about him, Mora-Polanco said he didn’t have an answer. The prosecutor, he said, posed “a very good question.”
“As much as you’re concerned, I’m concerned,” Mora-Polanco said. “I would like to know why.”
Mora-Polanco, the last witness in a trial that saw more than 40 people take the stand since testimony began Tuesday, flatly denied any responsibly for Marrero’s brutal death while under direct examination. He told jurors he wasn’t the person depicted in a surveillance video chasing Marrero across Alter Street with what appeared to be a handgun, nor was he the one who killed Marrero in a hail of bullets moments later.
“Were you the person who ultimately caused (Marrero’s) death?” defense attorney Frank McCabe asked.
“No, sir,” Mora-Polanco quickly replied.
In fact, Mora-Polanco argued, he hadn’t been near the crime scene for days.
Mora-Polanco, who said he had been staying at his mother’s apartment at 666 Alter Street, stated he was experiencing chest pains the day of the shooting, so he had his then-girlfriend, Deborah Deisenroth, pick him up from a Hazleton convenience store and drive him to Lehigh Valley Hospital.
He played surveillance video from the store that shows him entering in jean shorts and a white T-shirt, an outfit different from the dark clothes witnesses said he was wearing during the shooting.
Deisenroth corroborated the alibi while on the stand, but acknowledged she had no contact with Mora-Polanco between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., the time prosecutors say Marrero was gunned down.
An emergency room doctor who treated Mora-Polanco at the hospital testified that Mora-Polanco showed “a lack of symptoms.” His x-ray results were normal, and he was prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug before he was discharged around 1 a.m., Dr. Cynthia Liskov said.
Prosecutors, in a diagram of the hospital’s emergency room area shown on a projection screen in the courtroom, indicated Mora-Polanco was placed in a room three doors down from where Marrero was being treated and would have walked past the room at least twice on his way to receive the x-ray.
Judge Michael T. Vough said the jury will begin its deliberations Monday following closing arguments.
The week-long trial has featured little physical evidence tying Mora-Polanco to the crime. The weapon used in the killing was never recovered, and there was no DNA or blood evidence that implicated Mora-Polanco, investigators said.
In seeking a conviction, prosecutors will likely rely on the testimony of the four eyewitnesses — Shafer, Joline Shafer, Lanzot and Grose — who said they heard gunshots and saw Marrero being chased across Alter Street by Mora-Polanco. Each claimed they were hesitant to call 911 with information on the shooting out of fear they’d be harmed.
They also admitted to being heavy drug users at the time. Each has a criminal record.
McCabe, in his opening statement, urged jurors to pay close attention to the foursome’s testimony and decide for themselves whether their stories jived with one another.
Mora-Polanco
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Mora-Polanco
By Joe Dolinsky
jdolinsky@timesleader.com
Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL