Michael Holman and Dante Martin were arrested separately early yesterday in the Feb. 15 death of Julio Cesar Cruz Cruz, Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini Jr. said.
TRENTON — Two 18-year-old Trenton men who allegedly preyed on, robbed, and beat to death a lone Guatemalan immigrant walking home carrying dinner have been arrested and charged with felony murder, authorities announced yesterday.
Michael Holman and Dante Martin were arrested separately early yesterday in the Feb. 15 death of Julio Cesar Cruz Cruz, Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini Jr. said. At an afternoon news conference, Bocchini decried the “senseless” murder of an immigrant who came to Trenton seeking a better life, only to be killed in the street.
Nineteen-year-old Cruz had only been in the United States for 45 days, Bocchini said.
“This child was unnecessarily killed because of their decision to take from another human being.”
The prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force was able to crack the case with the help of surveillance video from security cameras at businesses all around the area of the first block of Rusling Street where the killing occurred, officials said. The video was paired with dedicated detective work, Bocchini said.
Holman and Martin face 30 years to life in prison for their charges, and each is being held in jail in lieu of $1 million full cash bail. Bocchini said his office is committed to making sure the two spend long stretches in prison.
Cruz’s murder caused an uproar in the city’s Latino community. More than 200 people gathered at City Hall the following week, many of them with ties to South and Central America who say they are tired of being targets for robbery.
“One of the positive things that has come out of this tragedy is that it has united not just the Latino community, but the entire city,” Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said, though he called it a “small comfort” for those grappling with the loss of Cruz.
An emotional Bocchini digressed from talk about the murder to deliver an impromptu speech about the importance of a legal, lawful path to citizenship that will decrease the vulnerability of immigrants who are attacked in Trenton and elsewhere.
“There’s a certain vulnerability that undocumented immigrants have, whether they be Hispanic, Polish, or of any other nationality or race,” Bocchini said. “They’re preyed upon because they can’t have a bank account, they have no place to put their money — they’re targets.”
Latino men have been targeted for years in Trenton for robbery. Known to the criminal element as “walking ATMs,” the undocumented community’s inability to get driver’s licenses or bank accounts leaves them vulnerable, on foot and carrying cash.
People like Cruz are going to be victims “until we as a society wake up and wise up,” Bocchini said.
The public pressure did not influence the importance authorities placed on the case, Rivera said.
“There’s no case that gets any special attention,” Rivera said. “That’s a fact.”
The investigation was marked by long hours and tenacious work alongside what is almost unbelievable good fortune, Bocchini said.
After countless hours analyzing video downloaded from area businesses, detectives returned last night to the Rusling Street area where Cruz was killed. During interviews there, the investigators found a person who identified Holman and said he hung out in the area, Bocchini said.
“Our guys are working the neighborhood, and there’s the guy standing on the corner,” Bocchini said.
Holman was arrested on the spot, and early yesterday detectives arrested Martin at his Second Street home.
“I was there until well after two o’clock in the morning last night, and they were there well after four, wrapping up this case,” Bocchini said.
The Homicide Task Force was formed in November in a merger between the prosecutor’s office and Trenton Police Department’s Homicide units. Since then, it has grown to include detectives from West Windsor, Lawrence, the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office and the New Jersey State Police.
Both Bocchini and Rivera repeatedly credited the concept of the Homicide Task Force, saying the amount of manpower brought to the homicide investigation was essential to arresting Cruz’s killers.
Cruz came to the United States to study and find work, his family said. Relatives ran outside the Rusling Street home the evening of Feb. 15 as Cruz was being beaten when they heard him screaming. Holman and Martin ran off in separate directions, authorities said.
Rivera says he plans to have a public safety summit in April to educate citizens of all ethnicities on how to keep themselves from being targeted.
“It is imperative that members of the community, business and the clergy continue to report crime and assist the police department whenever possible,” Rivera said.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.
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