Bronx DA: Indictment In 1990 Bronx Murder

INDICTMENT IN 1990 MURDER AFTER WITNESSES, WHO HAD

MOVED AWAY, NO LONGER FEARED SPEAKING TO POLICE

NYPD Detective Located Witnesses to Killing, One of 2,245 In City That Year

 

          Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Manhattan man has been indicted in the 1990 murder of a Bronx man, after an eyewitness to the fatal shooting finally came forward.

 

District Attorney Clark said, “This indictment shows that the victim is not just a forgotten statistic in the record year of murders in New York City, and no matter how long it takes we will get justice for him. Valentin Medina Peralta had no family or friends advocating for him but police were determined to arrest his alleged killer.”

 

District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Ricardo Baret, 53, of West 118th St. in Manhattan, was arraigned on April 20, 2016, before Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas on an indictment charging second-degree Murder. He was remanded and is due back in court on July 20, 2016.

 

According to the investigation, on December 22, 1990 at about 1 a.m., Baret allegedly shot Peralta, 32, in the back on 157th Street and Gerard Avenue in the Grand Concourse section. Peralta had played minor league baseball but had fallen on hard times. He had no known next of kin. Baret had been named as a suspect from the start, but witnesses were reluctant or not located. Since then they moved, some outside the state.

 

In February, 2016, the Bronx Homicide Squad learned of a witness who was willing to speak about the killing. Detective Robert Klein located the witness, as well as several others. The main witness had been afraid to come forward at the time of the murder but had since moved from the neighborhood and now was willing to cooperate.

 

The case is being prosecuted by Rachel Kalman of the Trial Division, under the supervision of Jeremy Shockett, Chief of the Trial Division.

 

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.

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