Accused Mark Carson Killer to Appear in Court Today

CBS News, New York reports that Elliot Morales, suspect in the May 18th shooting death of 32 year old Mark Carson in Greenwich Village is scheduled to be arraigned in a Manhattan court room today.

As reported by the Associated Press, Morales, 33, "the man who police say hurled homophobic slurs at a gay man on a Manhattan street before firing a single fatal shot to his head has been charged with murder as a hate crime." in addition to being charged with "criminal possession of a weapon and menacing"

As previously reported on EDGE, seconds before opening fire in the lively Village streets just after midnight, police say Morales followed Carson and a companion through the Village, asking if they "want to die here," New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Police said Morales then yelled anti-gay slurs before shooting Carson point-blank in the face in a neighborhood long known as a bedrock of the gay rights movement.

Morales was soon arrested a few blocks away.

He has a previous arrest for attempted murder in 1998, police said. Details of that arrest weren't immediately clear.

On May 23, The New York Daily News reported that although Morales, who is being held without bail in Riker's Island, did not appear in court for his indictment for murder as a hate crime, his defense attorney, Kevin Michael Canfield claimed his client's innocence, stating ??"He didn't murder anybody," ...""He was sexually abused as a child by a male authority figure which led to a lifetime of alcoholism and drug abuse," ??Family members of the victim were present in court today but did not speak with the press.

Mark Carson's murder was one in a serious of anti-gay attacks that plagued New York City this spring.