The trio accused of killing a troubled father on a Bronx D train were held without bail following arraignments in criminal court on Tuesday night, with the man who pulled the trigger claiming the slaying was self defense.
NYPD officers and agents with the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested Alfredo Trinidad, 42, Betty Cotto, 38, and Justin Herde, 24, on Monday.
They were charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of Alfredo William Alvarez, a Bronx dad with a lengthy rap sheet.
The gang attacked the man on a Manhattan-bound train at Fordham St. around 4:05 a.m. Friday and then killed him with a gun that Trinidad bought in Orlando, Fla., last year, prosecutors said.
Attorneys for both Cotto and Trinidad offered no defense during their arraignments in Bronx Criminal Court.
“He gave the gun to one of the co-defendants, Justin Herde, to carry when they were out because he didn’t want to get caught with said gun,” Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Rosenblum said of Trinidad.
Herde pulled the trigger, firing off the shot that killed Alvarez, and admitted he was holding the gun for Trinidad, prosecutors charged.
Herde claims that he shot Alvarez in self-defense, according to Legal Aid attorney Peter Laumann, who represented the man at the hearing.
“There’s an altercation that wasn’t a one-way altercation with somebody who’s significantly larger than Mr. Herde who, on information, literally drags Mr. Herde back onto the train during an assault,” Laumann said.
Cops previously said the trio and Alvarez got into an argument when one of the men sat down next to the victim. The dispute escalated into an all-out brawl with Herde, Cotto and Trinidad attacking Alvarez.
They were were all held without bail following their arraignments.
After the shooting on the train, Trinidad passed the murder weapon off to a 14-year-old child who was arrested with it, prosecutors said.
Alvarez’s family mourned the man over the weekend.
“He meant everything to us,” his ex-wife and mother of his two children, Erica Estremera, told the Daily News. “This is a tragic episode and I can’t believe that this happened in New York City transit. It’s not even safe.”
Alvarez has 25 prior arrests in the city including for drugs, shoplifting and grand larceny, police sources said.
He is on the sex offender registry for raping a 13-year-old girl in 1997, when he was 19, for which he served 22 months in prison. He later returned to prison on attempted burglary and possession of stolen property convictions and was most recently released in May 2018.
“He was an extraordinary man and a great soul,” the victim’s daughter, Madison Alvarez, 21, told the Daily News. “I don’t want his past criminal records and mistakes to take that away from him. He was a good man and was trying to be better. He had a really good heart.”
On Monday, NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper declined to say whether Trinidad, Cotto and Herde knew their victim, indicating the investigation was ongoing.
