staten island hood nigga news: man convicted of murdering best friend

A New Brighton man who shot and killed his best friend in a Port Richmond street fight 13 months ago was convicted Wednesday of murder and other charges.
Drew Casseus fatally shot Jonathan (Beans) Vazquez, 19, on Dec. 28, 2010, said prosecutors.

View full sizeStaten Island Advance/Michael OatesDetectives escort Drew Casseus from the district attorney's office last February. Casseus was convicted of murder in the case Thursday.

Casseus, 20, was allegedly trying to hit Thomas Re, with whom Vazquez had been brawling outside 192 Port Richmond Ave., prosecutors said.
According to authorities, several gun blasts preceded the fatal shot.
Casseus purportedly fired an initial round from a .38 caliber handgun into the air to break up the fight.
When the combatants didn't separate, Casseus fired a second shot, this time in the direction of the two men and a crowd of onlookers. That bullet struck Re, 21, in the thigh.
The wounded man backed away from Vazquez and ran. Casseus squeezed off several more rounds. The final bullet -- allegedly intended for Re -- fatally struck Vazquez in the head, said prosecutors.
Casseus ditched the gun and went on the lam for about a month, before authorities nabbed him at the home of his aunt in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section.
The defense contended someone else also fired shots during the melee and those bullets struck Vazquez.
Sources, however, said witnesses identified Casseus as the sole shooter, and there was no ballistic evidence to support a second gunman.

 

 

Victim's pal in custody after fatal Dec. shooting on Staten Island street Drew B. Casseus, 19, is escorted out of the District Attorney's office by detectives. Authorities believe Casseus accidentally shot his friend Jonathan Vazquez, also 19, in the head by mistake during a Port Richmond street fight on Dec. 28. Watch video

After the shooting, the victim's mother, Luna Suarez, told the Advance her son and Casseus had been friends from childhood. The two thought of each other as brothers and Casseus had lived with Vazquez's family for three years. The teens even shared each other's clothing, she said.
Casseus was convicted of second-degree murder. Under one element of the statute, a person is guilty of second-degree murder if he kills one person while intending to kill a second person.
He also was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder, second-degree assault and criminal weapon possession.
District Attorney Daniel Donovan said he hopes the verdict sends a message to young people who try to solve their problems with guns.
"I am pleased with the jury's verdict, but I also realize how difficult this must have been for the victim's mother, Luna Suarez," Donovan said in a statement. "As she said previously, she lost 'two sons' on the tragic day when the defendant, Drew Casseus, fatally shot his best friend, Jonathan Vazquez, on a Port Richmond street. I just hope Ms. Suarez' tears are not in vain."
Casseus faces up to 25 years to life in prison on the murder conviction and up to 25 years behind bars for the attempted-murder conviction.
His lawyer, Eugene Lamb, could not immediately be reached yesterday for comment.