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The man accused of murdering former Lewiston resident Alpo Martinez in New York in 2021 was acquitted Tuesday in New York City.
Shakeem Parker, 30, had been in jail for two and a half years charged with the murder of the legendary drug kingpin who spent five years in Lewiston in the federal witness program. Martinez lived in a College Street apartment in Lewiston under the name Abraham Rodriguez between 2016 and 2021.
Shortly after he gave up his secret identity and returned to the streets of Harlem, he was gunned down on Halloween.
Police accused Parker of shooting the man once known as “the mayor of Harlem” because he was upset at the reckless manner that Martinez road his motorcycles in the neighborhood.
Details of the trial of Parker were not available, but the proceedings began with jury selection in early June and have run off and on in the weeks since.
According to the court docket, he was acquitted Tuesday and released from jail. He was tried in the Criminal Court of the City of New York in Judge Daniel Conviser’s courtroom.
Martinez was a notorious crack dealer who acknowledged his role in at least 14 murders in New York and Washington, DC during the crack heyday in the 1980s. He faced a possible death penalty when he cut a deal with prosecutors to spend 20 years behind bars in return for providing evidence against another dealer in the nation’s capital.
Neither Parker nor his public defender in New York could be reached late Tuesday.
