Murder at the Palladium

NEW YORK - The events unfolded in a matter of seconds, but the mystery has lingered for 14 years. The bullets hit two people, but dozens more, one by one, were drawn into this intricate tale, unable to let it go. Investigations were launched. Careers ended. And two veteran homicide detectives sworn to uphold the justice system questioned their faith in it.

It all began on a frigid Thanksgiving night in 1990. It was "Latin Night" at the once popular Palladium nightclub in Manhattan. At about one a.m., shots rang out at the velvet ropes and two bouncers were hit. Marcus Peterson, an amateur bodybuilder and neighborhood football coach from Brooklyn, was only 23 when he was murdered. Thirty-one-year-old Jeff Craig, a former NYC police officer, was wheeled away with a bullet in his thigh.

The Palladium nightclub is now a college dorm. Witnesses told detectives that on the night of the murder, an Hispanic man got into a scuffle with a bouncer. He left but returned minutes later, this time with friends and guns. Within seconds multiple shots were fired at close range.

Soon, police issued an all-points bulletin for two Hispanic men in a 1984 or 1985 blue Oldsmobile. The only other detail was a partial license plate number with the numbers 8 and 1, and the letter K.

Three weeks after the shooting, eyewitnesses identified 22-year-old David Lemus in a photo array. At the time, he was a part-time construction worker going to night school to become a carpenter's apprentice. Five weeks later, he was picked out again in a lineup, arrested and charged with murder. 

Another 10 months passed before a second man was arrested. Twenty-six-year-old Omeldo Hidalgo was also picked out in a photo array and a lineup. Hidalgo had come to this country three years earlier and was working in his brother's grocery store, sending money to his family back in the Dominican Republic. 

Both men had prior arrests, Hidalgo for gun possession and Lemus for driving a stolen car. In November 1992, two years after the shooting, they were tried together. Carol Kramer was the jury foreperson.

Carol Kramer: "Our jury was really wonderful, just as diverse as the city. We were half black, half white, half professionals, half working people. The main testimony, the evidence, was the statements of the four eyewitnesses who were standing in front of the Palladium that night. Each of the witnesses would be asked, 'Do you see the man who shot Marcus?' Yes. And then they'd point to that man. 'Do you see the other man who shot Jeff?' Point to him, and they would say, 'That was the man.'"

In all, six eyewitnesses testified for the prosecution, four of them identifying Lemus and Hidalgo. All of the eyewitnesses said the area was well-lit and they could clearly see the men involved. But there were discrepancies in their accounts and juror Kramer wasn't convinced.

Kramer: "I don't know what the rest of the jury was thinking. But I was thinking, these eyewitnesses sort of contradict each other. And I hope there's more evidence."

There was. Delores Spencer, linked romantically to David Lemus, testified that a couple of days after the shooting, Lemus had confessed to her that he was one of the gunman, even asking her if he could hide "the gun" at her house. But when she was wired by police, during one of the taped conversations, David Lemus insisted that he was, in fact, innocent. The jury never heard that. But prosecutors played a portion of another conversation in which Lemus, once again, seemed to incriminate himself:

David Lemus: "If you're scared, just say you're scared."
Delores Spencer: "Why should I be scared of you?"
Lemus: "Because you know that I know that you know." [3 short puffs]

Kramer: "And that was very damning. Because in it, we hear him say k-k-k. And he made sounds that to us, sounded like gunshots."

After hearing that audiotape, juror Kramer started to look at the eyewitness identifications in a different light. She says she and her fellow jurors were sure that the eyewitnesses were right.

After 10 days of testimony from 13 witnesses, prosecutor Steve Saracco, rested his case. Now it was the defense's turn. But attorneys for Lemus and Hidalgo decided not to call a single witness, believing the prosecution failed to prove its case.

Kramer: "When we got into the jury room, we sat down. Somebody said, 'Well, does anyone think they're not guilty?' And there wasn't a peep."

Both David Lemus and Omeldo Hidalgo were found guilty of 2nd degree murder. They were sentenced to 25 years to life.

David Lemus's mother, Nilsa Huertas, was a single mom living in the Bronx 14 years ago. She still remembers the conversation she had with her only child the night of his arrest. She says he told her he did not do it. And she believed him. Omelda Hidalgo's mother, Lucia, also refuses to believe that her son was capable of such a crime.

A mother's anguish is one thing; a jury's verdict is another. But soon, new witnesses would begin talking. new evidence would be uncovered, raising important questions. Had the wrong men had been convicted? Had someone gotten away with murder? Those questions would come to consume a detective who had nothing to do with the case, but wouldn't let it go.

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