Murder Conviction In Reading Speakeasy Shooting
READING, Pa. (AP) — An eastern Pennsylvania man has been convicted of third-degree murder in the shooting death of a Maryland man in a Reading speakeasy almost four years ago.
The Reading Eagle (http://bit.ly/GYRonV ) says 32-year-old Jose Bonilla-Ortiz of Reading wept as he was convicted Monday in Berks County Court.
Authorities said he shot 28-year-old Richard Gonzalez of Prince George's County, Md. at the after-hours club in November 2009.
Bonilla-Ortiz was also convicted of aggravated assault and weapons offenses but acquitted of first-degree murder in a brawl in which two other people were shot in the leg.
Defense attorney William Bernhart attacked the credibility of prosecution witnesses and cited a lack of DNA evidence. He said that the speakeasy was a place of havoc and no one really knows what happened.
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