Eddy Almonte (seen here in his booking photo from Winchester, Va.)has been indicted for the May 2018 murder of Haverhill’s Nike Colon, WHAV can exclusively reveal.
A secret grand jury proceeding has resulted in the indictment of alleged gang member Eddy Almonte, the Haverhill man accused of murdering 20-year-old Nike Colon, WHAV can exclusively reveal.
Almonte is scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court next month, DA spokeswoman Carrie Kimball Monahan tells WHAV. The 27-year-old was indicted on June 28.
Court-appointed criminal attorney Eduardo A. Masferrer heads up his defense, and tells WHAV Almonte looks forward to his day in court.
“Mr. Almonte is nervous, as you can imagine,” Masferrer said. “There’s a serious charge against him. He’s anxious to look at the government’s evidence and figure out the best ways to proclaim his innocence.”
The case update comes nearly two months after the drive-by shooting of Colon in the city’s Mount Washington neighborhood.
During Almonte’s initial arraignment in Haverhill District Court, Assistant District Attorney Michael Dulany recounted how, on May 17, a black 2008 Honda SUV registered to and allegedly driven by Almonte, pulled up next to a white GMC pickup truck carrying Colon and fired at least four shots just after 5 p.m.
“As the white truck leaves, Mr. Colon can be seen in the passenger side with his head slowly falling out of the window,” Dulany said, adding that a witness also identified Almonte as the driver.
No stranger to police, known gang member Almonte was taken into custody May 28 during an unrelated traffic stop in Winchester, Va., and arrested on a warrant for murder.
As WHAV previously reported, Almonte’s arrest ties together a series of events and retaliations seemingly kicked off by the May 2016 shooting at Haverhill’s Swasey Field.
It was Colon’s murder, however, that pushed the city’s “gang war” into overdrive. In court documents obtained by WHAV, police said a June 15 shooting on Fifth Avenue was a retaliatory strike against the gang that allegedly killed Colon.
High Street resident Rony Vasquez is accused of being the Fifth Avenue shooter, with police confirming that the 18-year-old was “actively looking to purchase or locate more firearms because of the murder of his friend Nike Colon.” The 21-year-old man he targeted is a known associate of Almonte, police said.
Vasquez faces a judge next month in Haverhill District Court.