Edwin Velazquez always believed he would be set free, his attorney said after a jury acquitted him of conspiracy to commit murder.
Velazquez, now 45, was arrested in March 2016, charged with conspiring with his cousin Dennis Munoz to kill Michael Black.
Munoz was convicted Monday, after text messages, recorded phone calls and the victim's dying declaration that the man known as "Wolf" killed him led the jury to a guilty verdict.
But jurors seem to have gotten the message Velazquez’s defense attorney, Meg Hoerner, stressed in both her openings and closings: While the men were on trial together, the cases against them were different.
Hoerner painted Velazquez as a family man who was driving around with his cousin the night of the killing to get medicine for his sick son and prepare for a trip to a side job in Florida.
He was just a hard-working man who was trying to provide for his family, she said.
Now, the Atlantic City man is working to reclaim everything that was lost in the past three years, Hoerner said after the verdict.
In the three years and one month he spent in the Atlantic County Justice Facility, his family lost their home and has suffered other financial hardship. His wife has been a single parent to their two children.
Velazquez was an Atlantic City Public Works employee when he was arrested March 21, 2016.
A year later, he was terminated.
Getting his job back depends on some unclear factors, said Marcus King, president of Teamsters 331, which represents the city’s blue collar workers.
Atlantic City Human Resources Director Doreen Tucker did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
“He’s been a very patient man,” Hoerner said, noting Velazquez was arrested before the bail reform that fast tracks cases where a defendant is jailed.
There’s a chance Velazquez may not have even been kept in jail while awaiting trial under the reforms.
His lack of a criminal record could have resulted in his release at a detention hearing. Instead, he remained jailed on $1 million bail.
But Velazquez never showed anger at his situation, Hoerner said.
“He was firmly convinced a jury would find him innocent,” she said.
