By Chris Fuchs
Jose Feliciano, 25, of 205 Scholes St. in Brooklyn, was found guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery last Thursday, District Attorney Richard Brown said. Feliciano, to be sentenced on Nov. 27, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
During the week-long jury trial before Judge Barry Kron of the State Supreme Court in Queens, the prosecution contended that Feliciano shot Steven Julian, a single father, in front of about 150 witnesses after Feliciano insulted one of the victim's friends at a drag race on Francis Lewis Boulevard on Oct. 11, 1998.
“Drag races create an atmosphere of disregard for public safety by their very nature,” Brown said in a statement after the verdict. “The defendant shot a man who had stopped a fight. He then fled from the police and repeatedly endangered the public by continuing to flee from them.”
There was outrage in the Bayside community in the weeks after the shooting because no one had come forward to identify the shooter when so many onlookers were present. Ultimately, Feliciano was identified by several witnesses as the shooter, Brown said.
Alberto Ebanks, Feliciano's attorney, told the court that the Brooklyn man had attended the drag race in October 1998, but said that the identification of his client was flawed. Ebanks contended that the fingerprints taken from a car that prosecutors said Feliciano used to flee the scene were inconclusive, and that the three eyewitnesses gave differing descriptions.
“There were three IDs given by three people and each was separate from the other,” Ebanks said in a phone interview. “You have a guy who has his fingerprints on the exterior of the car. The fingerprints were nowhere on the interior.”
Norris Julian remembers vividly the last time he saw his son on Oct. 11, 1998. After dinner that night, Julian walked upstairs into his bedroom and went to bed. No sooner had he fallen asleep than he heard his front door slam. Steven, a car cleaner for the Long Island Rail Road, had to work the next day, and he was up for a promotion – gang foreman. It was late and his father's concern was mounting.
Then, in the middle of the night, the phone rang: Steven's girlfriend called to tell Julian and his wife, Kathleen, that their son had been shot.
Steven and his girlfriend had left Hempstead, L.I., that night in hopes of finding a drag race in the city. After driving to several locations known for drag racing and finding none, the couple trekked to Francis Lewis Boulevard, near St. Francis Prep by the Long Island Expressway.
Francis Lewis Boulevard has been targeted by authorities for many years as a popular drag-racing strip. Stevens and his girlfriend arrived there in one car, while his girlfriend's brother, Coron Graham, and his girlfriend drove to the Blue Bay Diner in their 1995 Burgundy Honda.
At some point that night, Feliciano noticed Graham's car and remarked, “What a fine bitching car.” Graham's girlfriend, standing next to the car, took offense. So her boyfriend popped the trunk, took out a baseball bat and threatened Feliciano with it, Julian said. “Who called my girl a bitch?” Graham said, brandishing the bat, according to Julian. Steven stepped in to wrest the bat away. Moments later, Feliciano pulled alongside Steven Julian and Graham and opened fire, hitting Steven twice, the district attorney said.
The car in which Feliciano had arrived sped off, so Feliciano pushed his way into Graham's car and drove away, the district attorney said. After a high-speed chase, the police captured Feliciano and arrested him.
When Feliciano appears in court to be sentenced, Ebanks said he will ask the judge to sentence his client to the minimum prison term, 15 years to life. Feliciano plans to appeal the conviction.
