The Brooklyn ex-con who blasted his parole officer only attacked because he was “in the grips of extreme emotional distress,” his defense attorney said during the trial’s opening yesterday.
Robert Morales, 52, shot his parole officer Sam Salters in the shoulder in 2010 because he said his new parole officer’s demands were ruining his life.
“It was a terrible, terrible month,” defense attorney John Stella said in Brooklyn Supreme Court, referring to the time Morales reported to Salters.
“It was the worst month in the life of a guy who has been in more correctional facilities than you can count on two hands.”
This is Morales’ retrial after his first trial ended in a mistrial last year.
Stella even laid some blame on Salters, who spent months in the hospital after the attack.
“Sam Salters treated him in a manner that he had never been treated by anyone in the correctional system.”
Stella argued that Morales is guilty only of aggravated assault of an officer, while prosecutors made the case for attempted aggravated murder.
“He shot him at point-blank range with full intent to kill him,” said Brooklyn assistant district attorney Lew Lieberman. “There is no extreme emotional distress defense here.”
In 1979 Morales was sentenced to 25 years to life for setting a fire that killed an 8-year-old boy.