RIVERHEAD, N.Y. – A man who had been arguing with roommates over rent payments abruptly turned his anger toward bystanders, taking his bow and firing an arrow that killed a neighbor, a prosecutor said.
Thomas Sirico, 35, is charged with one count of second-degree murder in the Jan. 8 death of Juan Carlos “Angel” Munoz, 27.
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Denise Merrifield said that before firing the fatal shot, Sirico yelled: “What are you staring at?”
“He aimed at Mr. Munoz’s heart and he shot him in the heart and he intentionally killed him,” she told jurors during her opening statement Monday.
Munoz was wearing a red sweater with a patch on the chest. “He wore a bull’s eye,” Merrifield said.
Defense attorney Stephen Scaring did not dispute that Sirico fired the arrow but insisted the shooting was an accident. “The evidence will not prove murder,” Scaring told jurors.
Scaring conceded his client had been drinking and using drugs before the shooting. “I will not ask you to like my client,” he said.
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