Absent murder defendant convicted by Nassau jury

In less than an afternoon, a Nassau County jury ended a 24-year saga Monday by convicting the last member of the three-man crew that robbed and fatally shot a Woodmere man in 1986.

The jury deliberated for about two hours before convicting Lewis Slaughter, 61, of Brooklyn, of second-degree murder in the death of Samuel Quentzel, 54, a plumbing store owner who was robbed and shot in his driveway.

Slaughter chose to act as his own attorney but did not appear in court to deliver a defense. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 9 and faces life in prison.

The lack of a defense, prosecutor Michael Walsh admitted, had thrown him for a loop.

"This is as strange or uncomfortable or awkward as I think I've ever felt," Walsh told the jury in his closing argument.

But one juror said Slaughter's absence did not ultimately sway her decision. "It was the arguments, not the lack of defense," said the juror, who declined to give her name.

Another juror agreed the prosecution presented a strong case. "The prosecution had sorted it out well," said the juror, who gave only his first name, Robert.

Quentzel's widow and son, who attended the closing argument and the verdict, declined to comment.

Slaughter was arrested in June 2009, 23 years after prosecutors say he took part in the attempted robbery and murder of Quentzel. Already in prison on a murder conviction for a death stemming from another robbery, Slaughter was arrested after police made a match between DNA found on a cigarette in the getaway car, and another man, Roger Williams.

After a complex sting operation, which included police secretly videotaping what prosecutors said are incriminating conversations between Williams and Slaughter about Quentzel, police concluded Slaughter took part in Quentzel's murder and arrested him.

Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, agreed to testify against Slaughter, and was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison.

Walsh, in his closing argument, brought up a few points that he said a defense lawyer for Slaughter would have raised - namely, the credibility of Williams.

Walsh told the jury that though Williams was a career criminal who was cooperating with the prosecution in exchange for his plea to a lesser charge, his testimony was credible.

"Anytime you have a witness get a benefit to testify, you have to be concerned," Walsh said. "He may be getting a benefit to testify, but he had a heck of a lot to lose too."