'Quit your whining,' judge tells him. Court police separate families of victim, defendant.
Onondaga County Court deputies separate relatives of stabbing victim Anthony Lewis (in black t-shirts) from relatives of Mizrain Trinidad-Ayala, who was sentenced today for killing Lewis after the Latin American Festival in downtown Syracuse.Syracuse, NY -- Bitterness filled the courtroom, the corridors outside it and the street in front of the city/county courthouse as a Syracuse man received a 15-year prison sentence for the stabbing death of another man at last summer's downtown Latin American Festival.
The defendant, Mizrain Trinidad-Ayala, sought to rescind the guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter, to no avail. He had pleaded guilty to the charge last month, admitting he had been trying to seriously injure Anthony Lewis, 20, when he stabbed Lewis once in the heart on Aug. 15.
In court this morning, Trinidad-Ayala, 23, told Judge William Walsh through a Spanish-language interpreter that he felt pressured by the police and pressured by Walsh when he admitted the crime. He was admitting guilt to a crime he did not commit, he said.
"Then you lied to me under oath," Walsh said, denying Trinidad-Ayala's request to withdraw his plea. When Trinidad-Ayala balked at signing a paper giving up his right to appeal, Walsh told him he would sentence him to 25 years instead.
"Quit your whining and sign it," he told the defendant.
Mizrain Trinidad-Ayala looks back at his family Wednesday during his sentencing in Onondaga County Court in the death of Anthony Lewis. The exchange came after Lewis' mother, Angelik Mitchell, blasted Trinidad-Ayala for taking her son's life and the district attorney's office for accepting a plea bargain rather than trying the defendant for murder.
"You have hardened my heart and forgiveness is not an option," Mitchell told Trinidad-Ayala. "You put a hole through my son's heart and a permanent hole through mine."
There was plenty of evidence to pursue a murder charge, Mitchell told First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio, who stood next to her in court.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Walsh told her. But Trunfio is a capable prosecutor, he said. He learned as a former prosecutor, he added, that "you never know what can happen at trial."
The victim's and defendant's families exchanged hushed words throughout the proceeding, leading bailiffs and then Walsh to order quiet and Walsh to eject one spectator.
The words grew harsher outside the courtroom and onto South State Street. Court police escorted both families away from the courthouse -- Trinidad-Ayala's up the street and Lewis' down -- as they exchanged curses and comments.