After 12 years had passed since the death of her teenage son in a shooting in the Bronx, who was about to enter the United States Navy, Luz DeJesus was finishing accepting her grief, when the ex-convict who killed him was released only to be captured for another murder.
“The justice system doesn’t seem to work,” said DeJesus, 49. “These last few years our family has been through a lot of pain.”
The criminal identified as Deshaun Coleman opened fire on DeJesus’ son in 2012, however, he was convicted only of weapons possession. The criminal’s defense convinced the jury that his client was defending herself when he shot Víctor Maldonado on a street in the Bronx and thus avoided the charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter.
Currently, Coleman, 46, returned to the streets a little over a year ago, was captured again in February and accused of shooting to death an old friend of the teenager two blocks from where he had killed the young man 12 years ago.
The ex-convict had been released on parole for the case of DeJesus’ son in January 2023.
“When someone says, ‘Oh, my name is Deshaun,’ or even with the last name Coleman, it drives me crazy,” DeJesus noted.
Authorities detained Coleman six days after Hasan Richburg, 26, was fatally shot on February 8.
“He killed that other young man and got away with it,” said Richburg’s brother, Harry James Richburg, 45. “The people in the neighborhood were afraid of him because of that.”
The Richburg homicide shocked DeJesus’ family. The mother’s daughter had been friends with him for a long time.
“They grew up together,” DeJesus explained. “She said, ‘Oh, Mom, you know a friend of mine was murdered right there in Kingsbridge. And he had daughters, he had a family.’”
After news of the man’s death, DeJesus told her daughter and said, “’Oh my God, it’s the same guy,’” the mother said. “And that’s when we realized.”
Maldonado was a week away from taking his physical to enlist in the U.S. Navy when he was hit by a bullet in the torso on Heath Ave. near W. Kingsbridge Road on Oct. 1, 2012.
The victim’s mother told the press at the time that she did not understand how the ex-convict was free after his long criminal history.
Coleman had 19 prior arrests before Richburg’s death on charges of robbery and possession of a controlled substance, police said. In 2007 he was sentenced to prison for robbery in the Bronx and was released three and a half years later.
He was sentenced to up to 12 years behind bars for gun possession after Maldonado’s death. DeJesus said that if Coleman had been convicted of the death of his son, Richburg would be alive today.
Maldonado became involved in an altercation two girls were having and tried to act as a peacemaker, his family said.
Coleman assured authorities that another girl was preventing her sister from entering a building and that during the fight she took Maldonado’s gun and then “just shot herself.”
“I grabbed his belt loop and realized he had a gun,” the ex-con told authorities, according to court documents.
“I reached for him and took it from him. Then I shot him. She wasn’t aiming at him. She just burst out. Yes, I fired the gun after he dropped it. I don’t know what happened to the child. I walked over to the other guy who was still holding the gun and said, “Is it over?” Then I entered the apartment. “I never called 911.”
However, Coleman’s sister told officials that her brother had arrived with the gun and she had begged him not to shoot Maldonado, the Daily News reported.
“They started arguing. And that’s when I got in the middle because he grabbed this gun and I was like, ‘Stop it!'” Theresa Coleman told detectives, according to court documents. “I didn’t want any of this to happen.”
For his part, Javier Solano, Coleman’s lawyer, at that time, stated that he feels bad for Maldonado’s mother, but believes that the jury did the right thing.
“In the end, the jury believed us and concluded that prosecutors could not refute self-defense,” Solano said. “That was his defense the whole time. He was simply grateful that the jury felt the same.”
Death of an old friend
Now the Richburg family feels a pain similar to that of Maldonado’s mother.
A neighbor said the man was one of three siblings who were raised by an aunt after their parents died.
“I feel a lot of empathy for them,” said the neighbor, who only identified himself as Manuel. “I feel bad for them. I want to cry.”
The resident described Richburg as a “tall, handsome man” who “didn’t know his potential.”
The man was released from prison on parole in 2019 after serving two years of sentences for possession of weapons and drugs along with criminal conduct.
Richburg, who was trying to reform, worked as a laboratory technician and had six children.
Okay, so Harry James Richburg, his brother, was Coleman’s target.
“Word on the street is that a girl (Coleman) was dating was attracted to my brother,” he said, adding that the shooting was motivated by “jealousy” and “animosity.”
The victim was shot several times in the torso at an apartment building on W. Kingsbridge Road, near Webb Ave. He walked half a block and was found outside Kennedy Fried Chicken & Pizza. He was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital.
Doorbell video captured the homicide and shows Richburg sitting on the steps inside the building as an alarm sounded. Moments later, Coleman emerges, points a gun at the man and orders him to stand up.
Richburg raised his arms briefly before running out of the chamber and the gunman opens fire, shooting him several times before returning and climbing the stairs.
Coleman is being held without bail at Rikers Island. He is due back in Bronx Criminal Court on nine counts of murder on March 14.
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