Northampton man pleads guilty and is sentenced in 2018 death
Nerkin Morales, 24, of Northampton, pleaded guilty in Hampshire Superior Court, today, Sept. 15, 2020, to the voluntary manslaughter of Daniel Cruz in March 2018 and other charges.
He was sentenced by Judge John Agostini to a total of 15 to 20 years in prison.
Morales also pleaded guilty to charges of improper disposition of a body, burning personal property, intimidation of a witness, withholding evidence from a criminal proceeding, two counts of conspiracy, and unlawful possession of a firearm. Due to his prior record, Morales was sentenced as an armed career criminal for possessing the illegal firearm; a conviction that carries with it a 15 year mandatory minimum sentence.
Today, Morales admitted that he shot Cruz three times inside an apartment building on Bridge Road in Northampton after Cruz was in an altercation with a friend of Morales. After Cruz was killed, Morales and several others spent the next 12 hours concealing Morales’ crime by cleaning the crime scene, disposing of key evidence including the firearm used to kill Cruz, and ultimately burning his body in a vacant field in Hatfield after nightfall. Cruz’s body was discovered on fire after neighboring residents called 911. A total of nine people were indicted by a grand jury for charges related to Cruz’s death and the alleged cover-up of his murder. Morales was the only one charged with the killing.
Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Suhl, who prosecuted the case, said, “We are pleased to have been able to bring this case to a just conclusion, even during the middle of a pandemic. The defendant’s guilty plea today and sentence from the court brings us one step closer to ensuring full accountability from all of the individuals involved in Mr. Cruz’s killing and the concealment of that crime. Our focus will now turn to the cases of the remaining co-defendants whose matters are still pending in court.”
Morales is currently serving a 3-year prison sentence on unrelated charges of possession with intent to distribute heroin and trafficking in cocaine.
In March, Pedro Soto-Rodriguez, 22, pleaded guilty to charges of accessory after the fact to murder and other charges in in connection with his efforts to conceal and dispose of Cruz’s body, to clean evidence from the crime scene, and to intimidate a key witness from coming forward to the police. He was sentenced to a total of 7-8 years in state prison. The cases for five other co-defendants remain pending.
Morales was represented by Attorney William O’Neil of Northampton.