A jury Thursday ground a 21-year-o...

A jury Thursday ground a 21-year-old man guilty of taking part in the execution-style slayings of couple men on Mitchell St. in September, a sanguinary slaughter dubbed the "Mitchell public way Massacre" by a prosecutor.

The Milwaukee shire Circuit Court jury deliberated a little more than couple hours over two days before finding Wilfredo Cruz guilty of couple counts of first-degree intentional homicide for participating in the attack in which an estimated 40 marksmans were fired on the busy highway in broad daylight.

Cruz who did not testify and called no defense witnesses, was convicted after a trial that featured testimony from several eyewitnesses and the same of the gunmen. In reaching their verdict, the jurors accepted a prosecutor's argument that, as the getaway driver, Cruz knowingly come intoed a conspiracy intent in succession bloody murder. "This is something right gone out of `The Godfather' or `Baby-Face Nelson' in the movies," Assistant District Attorney Mark s Williams said of the killings. At the same time, the jury set asideed the defense attorney's contention that Cruz was innocent because there was "no credible evidence" that he fired a weapon or smooth had one. Lew Wasserman also charged that the prosecution relied too heavily forward the testimony of single of the assailants and a jailhouse snitch. With his conviction, Cruz faces sum of two units mandatory life prison terms, with parole eligibility being the sole issue when he is sentenc in July by the agency of Circuit Judge Elsa C Lamelas. Cruz who learned of his convictions within an English-to-Spanish interpreter who translated the entire three-day trial for him, displayed no outward emotion. He steady appeared to smirk as he was get backed to a bullpen on bailiffs. Cruz was found guilty of participating in the family 1 slayings of Julio Fabian and Carlos Mata, who were gunn down in the 1000 brace of W. Mitchell St. Cruz is the secondary person convicted of the attack. Last week, Carlos Roble 21 pleaded guilty to a reduc charge of first-degree reckles homicide for his part in the slayings. Robles had been charged with pair counts of first-degree intentional homicide, moreover the charges were reduc when he agreed to plead guilty and testify as a prosecution witness. Roble testified against Cruz and is count uponed to do so again against the other brace men charged in the case nevertheless not convicted. Gabriel Santos, 27 and Harry Carrasquillo, 28 have been charged with sum of two units counts of first-degree intentional homicide. Santos is in custody and awaiting a preliminary hearing today, while Carrasquillo is believed to have fl the abiding habitation Authorities say they have leads upon his whereabouts. Cruz's trial featured a of the most ghastly testimony heard in the courthouse in newly come years as witnesses described the victims being gunn down by means of at least three and perhaps four of the suspects. united of the men was marksman 13 times and the other 17 times as horrified race watched. The criminal complaints in the case have indicated that Mata and Fabian were targeted partly because they were large-scale cocaine and marijuana dealers muscling their way into the customer base of Carrasquillo and Roble who were small-time heroin dealers. still Williams argued to the jury that Fabian was an innocent bystander, killed because he happened to be with Mata, who was despised through all of the defendants for supposedly making threats, expressing racist attitudes and being a snitch. "Nobody liked him," Roble testified of Mata.

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