Big media presence at Lucero murder trial

As the start of jury deliberations neared in the hate-murder trial of Jeffrey Conroy on Tuesday afternoon, the third floor of the Suffolk courthouse in Riverhead began to look like the set of a television talk show.

Five cameras on tripods were arrayed in front of a wooden podium set up near a pair of elevators, and reporters milled about waiting for the next news conference to break out.

The trial of Conroy, 19, of Medford, who has denied killing Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero in November 2008 in Patchogue, has attracted Spanish-language print and television journalists in addition to reporters from Newsday, The Associated Press, The New York Times and area television and radio stations.

Outside the courthouse Tuesday afternoon, a small forest of TV satellite dishes had begun to sprout from the tops of trucks in the parking lot.

Bilingual news conferences were taking place in the third-floor hallway while court staff walked by in the course of their usual work.

Cameras were restricted to a cordoned-off section of the hallway. State Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle has so far rejected requests from news organizations, including Newsday, to allow cameras in the courtroom.

The appearance of Conroy's father, Robert Conroy, caused a stir. A News 12 Long Island reporter held out her microphone and asked Conroy for a comment.

"He didn't do it," he said as he walked to the courtroom.

Immigrant-rights activists and a representative of the Ecuadorean government spoke on the podium after prosecutor Megan O'Donnell gave her closing argument.

"I think we are comfortable that the jury will look deep into their conscience and reach the right verdict in this heinous crime," said Andrea Callan, director of the Suffolk chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

While some activists spoke to media at one end of the restricted section, Conroy's attorney, William Keahon, addressed reporters at the opposite end.

"The jury is very bright and they're going to weigh the facts and come to the right decision," Keahon said.

Speaking in Spanish and English, Pablo Calle, a representative of the Ecuadorean government, told reporters he would meet soon with Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri to discuss the safety of immigrants.

"We expect to begin meeting within the next few weeks to make sure that these types of hate crimes don't happen again," Calle said.