By Peter A. Sutters Jr.
Joe Manley, 22, of Long Island City was found guilty by a jury of nine women and three men who deliberated over three days before handing down their verdict Tuesday, DA Richard Brown said.”The victim, Rosa Green, was a loving mother and grandmother whose violent death by gunfire was terrible and tragic,” Brown said. In opening statements at the start of the two-week trial by both the defense and the prosecution, both sides agreed that Rosa Green was not Manley's intended target. He was said to be looking for her son, Kevin Green, whom he had a dispute with outside a Long Island City bar a week before Rosa Green's fatal shooting. Kevin Green, according to Assistant District Attorney James Quinn, was jumped by a group that included Manley when he returned to the scene of an argument on the night of Feb. 23, 2002 — less than a week before his mother was killed. The younger Green was caught with a firearm but was bailed out of prison later that day, Quinn said. The next morning, Manley allegedly shot at Rosa Green's empty car, parked behind the Ravenswood Public Housing complex in Long Island City, to send a message to Kevin Green, Quinn said.Kevin Green retaliated by spreading fuel and setting a fire in a car owned by one of Manley's friends, the prosecutor said. He has since been convicted of that crime and sentenced to a year in prison, Quinn said.On that fateful day in Feb. 2002, Rosa Green and her husband ended up in Jamaica after placing an ad in a newspaper to sell her son's car, a 1999 Lexus. The family drove out to Jamaica to show Kevin Green's car to a prospective buyer when they pulled into the McDonald's parking lot so that Rosa Green's husband could use the restroom. Quinn said Manley knew the car belonged to Green and walked up to it and fired several shots at the person he thought was Kevin but turned out to be Rosa.Manley was scheduled to be sentenced April 12 in and could face 25 years to life in prison.Reach reporter Peter A. Sutters Jr. by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext. 173.
