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Scammer RoidDoc gets 9 years to life in prison!
Man guilty of murdering girl, 11, in '84
BY CHAU LAM, STAFF WRITER
Family friend convicted of killing Massapequa child in trial where jury relied heavily on testimony of man’s ex-girlfriends.
February 28, 2004
https://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liwong0228,0,1382198.story?coll=ny-homepage-big-pix
A jury on Friday found Manuel Pacheco guilty of murder, saying he intended to kill an 11-year-old Massapequa girl nearly two decades ago when he drowned her by using a log to pin her head under water.
(Manuel Pacheco leaves court in Mineola and is taken back to jail after he was found guilty of killing Angela Wong, 11.)
After the verdict was announced, several jurors said Pacheco's confessions to three women -- two former girlfriends and an acquaintance -- were the most compelling pieces of evidence presented at trial and convinced them he had killed Angela Wong, a childhood friend, on July 17, 1984.
"Those are the big three," said juror Rick Fleischmann, 31, a hospital manager from Bethpage.
The jury's task was difficult because there was no forensic evidence, such as fingerprints, to consider, said juror Rona Most, 51, a school psychologist.
It took the jury about eight hours of deliberations over a two-day period before finding Pacheco guilty of second-degree intentional murder. Pacheco, 35, of Los Angeles, was 15 when Angela was killed and police said he tried to sexually assault her, then killed her when she resisted.
Pacheco was tried as a juvenile and he faces a maximum of 9 years to life in prison when Nassau County Court Judge Donald E. Belfi imposes sentencing on March 26 in Mineola.
Pacheco showed no visible reaction Friday as the verdict was read before a packed courtroom.
Angela's relatives and friends, many of whom came to court daily for the past four weeks to hear testimony, gave a collective sigh of relief after jury foreman Jean Raymond declared Pacheco guilty of intentional murder.
"Guilty was good enough for me," said Angela's mother, Toni Wong, 53, of Massapequa. "For me, my daughter can finally rest in peace. Thank God."
Angela disappeared late afternoon on July 17, 1984 after telling her brother, Angelo Wong Jr., she was going to the mall. Her body was found the next morning floating facedown in a shallow pond in a wooded area near her home. A log was placed on the back of her neck to keep it under water.
In a telephone interview, one of Pacheco's attorneys, Thomas Liotti of Garden City, said of Pacheco, "He's very disappointed and upset and feels that the jury didn't have the opportunity to hear all the evidence."
The defense plans to appeal the verdict and is considering whether to ask Belfi to set it aside.
Fleischmann and Most said they did not believe Pacheco's mother, sister, and brother Luis Pacheco, when the three testified that Manuel Pacheco was home at the time Assistant District Attorney Robert Hayden said Angela was murdered.
"The most compelling issues were his confessions to his girlfriends and the fact that we could not really rely on his family's testimony as to where he was," Most said.
Fleischmann and Most said the jurors took an informal poll early on and eight members voted to convict Pacheco, three were undecided and one voted to acquit. After the two days of deliberations, the jury came to a unanimous agreement.
"I am very satisfied that the detectives, with all their hard work, were able to bring closure to the family," Hayden said. "It's still a tragedy ... we can't bring her back to life."
Staff writer Keiko Morris contributed to this story.
Finding justice and peace
BY KEIKO MORRIS, STAFF WRITER
February 28, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limom0228,0,6266312.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
After two decades, 11-year-old Angela Wong can finally rest in peace, her family said Friday.
"I'm going to kiss that stone [on her grave] and say, 'Baby, we did it,'" said Toni Wong, Angela's mother.
The reading of Friday's verdict was the culmination of years of anger and grief, an end to their search for justice, Wong's family said.
Over the years, there had been so many leads that had gone nowhere, Toni Wong said. When she got a call in 2002 that Manuel Pacheco had been arrested for her daughter's murder, she said she could not quite believe the news.
But the name did not surprise her. Because of Pacheco's reputation as a troublemaker and talk in the community, "I always had a feeling," she said.
Toni Wong only had 11 years with Angela -- which she said she cherished -- but she emphasized that she will always miss the years she was supposed to have, the years that never came.
"Not having her by me, hugging me and kissing me," said Wong, 53, of Massapequa, "becoming friends and not having that mother-daughter relationship."
Wong said she had her family to carry her through the years, from the day her daughter's body was found facedown in a shallow pond. And anger, she said, also was a powerful force, fueling her determination to get through the anguish.
The milestones of her daughter's life, and all the mundane moments in between, those are what Toni Wong knows she'll never have. Confirmation, graduation, Sweet 16, her 30th birthday, marriage, she rattles off the list as if she has been pondering it through the decades.
Angela's brother, Angelo Wong Jr., and his wife, Rachel Wong, both of Massapequa, described Friday's verdict as justice and the end of a nightmare.
"She's not turning in her grave anymore," Angelo Wong Jr. said. "She can have sweet dreams for infinity."
He experienced a whipsaw of emotions as the verdict sunk in, he said. "It's everything between happiness and anger and all of the above," he said.
The verdict was what Angelo and his wife said they prayed for. For years, they said they wrestled with the thought that Angela's murderer was walking the streets. Rachel Wong said it was as if a cloud constantly hung over their lives.
"There's no cloud anymore," she said. "And now we can start to remember her laughing."
Chronology of Angela Wong Case
Staff Writer
February 28, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liside0228,0,7944978.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
July 17, 1984 -- Angela Wong, 11, tells friends at her Massapequa home that afternoon she is going to the nearby Sunrise Mall and would return soon to go with them to a teen disco. She never returns.
July 18, 1984 -- Angela is found dead in a wooded area of Massapequa, a quarter-mile from her house, with her face shoved into a shallow pond and a log over the back of her neck. Manuel Pacheco, a relative and childhood friend who is 15 at the time, tells police he last saw Angela around 4:30 p.m. the day before when she left her house to go to the mall.
1990 -- Pacheco takes a lie detector test for Nassau police, but results are inconclusive. He moves to Los Angeles and works as a personal trainer at a gym.
1997 -- Nassau police receive a phone call that sparks new leads. A former girlfriend of Pacheco tells them he confessed to killing Angela and she provides crucial details.
March 2002 -- Manuel Pacheco, now 33, is arrested by Los Angeles police for Angela's murder. After the arrest, Nassau police speak with two other women who said he told them he had killed Angela.
June 7, 2002 -- Pacheco pleads not guilty to second-degree murder in Nassau County Court in Mineola.
Feb. 2, 2004 -- Opening statements are given by prosecutor and defense attorney in Pacheco's trial in Nassau County Court. He is tried as a juvenile because he was 15 when Angela was killed. He is now 35 and maintains his innocence. Pacheco's mother, brother and sister all testify Pacheco was home around the time the prosecutors say Angela was killed.
Feb. 27 -- Pacheco is found guilty of murdering Angela.
Man guilty of murdering girl, 11, in '84
BY CHAU LAM, STAFF WRITER
Family friend convicted of killing Massapequa child in trial where jury relied heavily on testimony of man’s ex-girlfriends.
February 28, 2004
https://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liwong0228,0,1382198.story?coll=ny-homepage-big-pix
A jury on Friday found Manuel Pacheco guilty of murder, saying he intended to kill an 11-year-old Massapequa girl nearly two decades ago when he drowned her by using a log to pin her head under water.
(Manuel Pacheco leaves court in Mineola and is taken back to jail after he was found guilty of killing Angela Wong, 11.)
After the verdict was announced, several jurors said Pacheco's confessions to three women -- two former girlfriends and an acquaintance -- were the most compelling pieces of evidence presented at trial and convinced them he had killed Angela Wong, a childhood friend, on July 17, 1984.
"Those are the big three," said juror Rick Fleischmann, 31, a hospital manager from Bethpage.
The jury's task was difficult because there was no forensic evidence, such as fingerprints, to consider, said juror Rona Most, 51, a school psychologist.
It took the jury about eight hours of deliberations over a two-day period before finding Pacheco guilty of second-degree intentional murder. Pacheco, 35, of Los Angeles, was 15 when Angela was killed and police said he tried to sexually assault her, then killed her when she resisted.
Pacheco was tried as a juvenile and he faces a maximum of 9 years to life in prison when Nassau County Court Judge Donald E. Belfi imposes sentencing on March 26 in Mineola.
Pacheco showed no visible reaction Friday as the verdict was read before a packed courtroom.
Angela's relatives and friends, many of whom came to court daily for the past four weeks to hear testimony, gave a collective sigh of relief after jury foreman Jean Raymond declared Pacheco guilty of intentional murder.
"Guilty was good enough for me," said Angela's mother, Toni Wong, 53, of Massapequa. "For me, my daughter can finally rest in peace. Thank God."
Angela disappeared late afternoon on July 17, 1984 after telling her brother, Angelo Wong Jr., she was going to the mall. Her body was found the next morning floating facedown in a shallow pond in a wooded area near her home. A log was placed on the back of her neck to keep it under water.
In a telephone interview, one of Pacheco's attorneys, Thomas Liotti of Garden City, said of Pacheco, "He's very disappointed and upset and feels that the jury didn't have the opportunity to hear all the evidence."
The defense plans to appeal the verdict and is considering whether to ask Belfi to set it aside.
Fleischmann and Most said they did not believe Pacheco's mother, sister, and brother Luis Pacheco, when the three testified that Manuel Pacheco was home at the time Assistant District Attorney Robert Hayden said Angela was murdered.
"The most compelling issues were his confessions to his girlfriends and the fact that we could not really rely on his family's testimony as to where he was," Most said.
Fleischmann and Most said the jurors took an informal poll early on and eight members voted to convict Pacheco, three were undecided and one voted to acquit. After the two days of deliberations, the jury came to a unanimous agreement.
"I am very satisfied that the detectives, with all their hard work, were able to bring closure to the family," Hayden said. "It's still a tragedy ... we can't bring her back to life."
Staff writer Keiko Morris contributed to this story.
Finding justice and peace
BY KEIKO MORRIS, STAFF WRITER
February 28, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limom0228,0,6266312.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
After two decades, 11-year-old Angela Wong can finally rest in peace, her family said Friday.
"I'm going to kiss that stone [on her grave] and say, 'Baby, we did it,'" said Toni Wong, Angela's mother.
The reading of Friday's verdict was the culmination of years of anger and grief, an end to their search for justice, Wong's family said.
Over the years, there had been so many leads that had gone nowhere, Toni Wong said. When she got a call in 2002 that Manuel Pacheco had been arrested for her daughter's murder, she said she could not quite believe the news.
But the name did not surprise her. Because of Pacheco's reputation as a troublemaker and talk in the community, "I always had a feeling," she said.
Toni Wong only had 11 years with Angela -- which she said she cherished -- but she emphasized that she will always miss the years she was supposed to have, the years that never came.
"Not having her by me, hugging me and kissing me," said Wong, 53, of Massapequa, "becoming friends and not having that mother-daughter relationship."
Wong said she had her family to carry her through the years, from the day her daughter's body was found facedown in a shallow pond. And anger, she said, also was a powerful force, fueling her determination to get through the anguish.
The milestones of her daughter's life, and all the mundane moments in between, those are what Toni Wong knows she'll never have. Confirmation, graduation, Sweet 16, her 30th birthday, marriage, she rattles off the list as if she has been pondering it through the decades.
Angela's brother, Angelo Wong Jr., and his wife, Rachel Wong, both of Massapequa, described Friday's verdict as justice and the end of a nightmare.
"She's not turning in her grave anymore," Angelo Wong Jr. said. "She can have sweet dreams for infinity."
He experienced a whipsaw of emotions as the verdict sunk in, he said. "It's everything between happiness and anger and all of the above," he said.
The verdict was what Angelo and his wife said they prayed for. For years, they said they wrestled with the thought that Angela's murderer was walking the streets. Rachel Wong said it was as if a cloud constantly hung over their lives.
"There's no cloud anymore," she said. "And now we can start to remember her laughing."
Chronology of Angela Wong Case
Staff Writer
February 28, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liside0228,0,7944978.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
July 17, 1984 -- Angela Wong, 11, tells friends at her Massapequa home that afternoon she is going to the nearby Sunrise Mall and would return soon to go with them to a teen disco. She never returns.
July 18, 1984 -- Angela is found dead in a wooded area of Massapequa, a quarter-mile from her house, with her face shoved into a shallow pond and a log over the back of her neck. Manuel Pacheco, a relative and childhood friend who is 15 at the time, tells police he last saw Angela around 4:30 p.m. the day before when she left her house to go to the mall.
1990 -- Pacheco takes a lie detector test for Nassau police, but results are inconclusive. He moves to Los Angeles and works as a personal trainer at a gym.
1997 -- Nassau police receive a phone call that sparks new leads. A former girlfriend of Pacheco tells them he confessed to killing Angela and she provides crucial details.
March 2002 -- Manuel Pacheco, now 33, is arrested by Los Angeles police for Angela's murder. After the arrest, Nassau police speak with two other women who said he told them he had killed Angela.
June 7, 2002 -- Pacheco pleads not guilty to second-degree murder in Nassau County Court in Mineola.
Feb. 2, 2004 -- Opening statements are given by prosecutor and defense attorney in Pacheco's trial in Nassau County Court. He is tried as a juvenile because he was 15 when Angela was killed. He is now 35 and maintains his innocence. Pacheco's mother, brother and sister all testify Pacheco was home around the time the prosecutors say Angela was killed.
Feb. 27 -- Pacheco is found guilty of murdering Angela.
