Marcelo Lucero’s Teen Killer Gets 25 Years In Prison

By Julianne Hing May 27, 2010

Jeffrey Conroy, the 19-year-old Long Island teen convicted of murdering Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero in 2008, received 25 years in prison yesterday, the maximum sentence for his crimes. Last month Conroy was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and gang assault for stabbing Lucero to death outside a Patchogue, Long Island, train station when he and six other friends decided to go beat up Latinos in their neighborhood, a sport they called "beaner-hopping." The six other teens were indicted along with Conroy, but he was the only one who was charged with both murder and manslaughter. The AP reported that Conroy was contrite when he was read his sentence. "I’m really sorry for what happened to Mr. Lucero," he said. "I’m really sorry for the whole situation. I feel really bad for what his whole family is going through right now." Meanwhile, the murder trial of Jose Sucuzhanay, another Ecuadorean immigrant murdered just a month after Lucero, ended in a mistrial. Jurors could not agree that Sucuzhanay’s death was a hate crime. Lucero’s murder prompted many Latinos in Long Island to come forward about the racialized attacks they endured. The Department of Justice opened an investigation last fall into the reports of Suffolk County’s negligent police response. Photo Credit: Reuters/STR New

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