A Bronx man found guilty of fatally shooting a neighbor in the back during a gunfight has been released early from prison thanks to an appeals court ruling that he could have opened fire in self defense.
Alfonso Skeeter was released from Eastern Correctional Facility in Ulster County last week after serving five years of his 20-year sentence for the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Ray Rosello.
Evidence at trial showed Rosello was part of a group that got into an argument outside of a deli at 180th St. and Daly Avenue on July 19, 2015. A second group, including Skeeter, eventually joined the fray. Skeeter and Rosello traded a total of around 20 rounds in what Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark described as “a fusillade of bullets” in a release. Rosello was struck in the right thigh and upper back and died.
But on June 1 a mid-level state appeals court vacated the manslaughter charge against Skeeter, ruling prosecutors had not proven he shot first. In fact, evidence “strongly suggests” Rosello first pulled a gun, according to the ruling.
“We do not believe that the mere fact that the victim was shot in the back establishes that defendant was the initial aggressor, or that he did not reasonably believe that deadly physical force was still being used against him at the time he fired the fatal shot,” the court wrote. “Under the totality of the evidence, the fact that Rosello had his back turned to defendant at the moment when he was shot does not establish that he was withdrawing from the gunfight or running away.”
Ray Rosello
The court allowed Skeeter’s conviction for criminal possession of a weapon to stand.
Rosello’s mother, Yvonne Rodriguez, told Gothamist she’d been a “nervous wreck” since the ruling.
“What self defense?" Rodriguez, 50, said about the decision. “My son was shot through the back.”
She recalled holding her mortally wounded son outside her apartment building near the scene of the shooting.
“I relive every bit of it every day,” Rodriguez said. “I see my son running. I see him dying in my arms, taking his last breath.”
Patrice O’Shaughnessy, a spokesperson for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors will file a motion to reargue the case before the Appellate Division, First Department.
Defense attorney Michael Dowd, who is not involved in the case, called the ruling “very rare” and “one in a thousand.”
Skeeter’s attorney did not respond to an inquiry.
Rosello was killed just six months after being released from a five-year stint in juvenile jail. He was locked up starting at age 15 for a robbery, his mom said. He left behind two sons, one of whom he'd never met.
“[Skeeter] gets to go home and spend time with his son and Ray doesn’t get to go home to his kids.” Rodriguez said. “Where is the justice?”
