Man accused of murdering Massachusetts 20-year-old and 4-month-old baby captured in Puerto Rico

Connecticut’s New HavenA Waterbury man wanted for murder after a violent altercation in Hartford on November 19 has been taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals in Puerto Rico.

In Springfield, Massachusetts, Lance Benuet Morales, 23, is accused of shooting and killing Jessiah Mercado, 20, and her 4-month-old son, Messiah Diaz. There were also injuries to a third person.

Morales was charged with two counts of murder, first-degree assault, criminal possession of a firearm, criminal attempt to commit first-degree assault, and murder with special circumstances after the Hartford Police Department named him as the main suspect in the shooting.

When U.S. Marshals in Connecticut and Massachusetts learned that Morales had escaped to Puerto Rico, they worked with the Hartford Police to send a collateral lead to the USMS Puerto Rico Violent Fugitive Task Force, who located and detained Morales at a home in the Fajardo neighborhood.

Morales was officially charged as a fugitive from justice and sent to the Fajardo Police Department for processing. In Connecticut, where he will be charged, he is awaiting extradition.

Police said that Mercado and Morales were friends who got into a fight over a car.

For funeral costs, a GoFundMe page has been set up.

According to acting U.S. Marshal for the District of Connecticut Lawrence Bobnick, investigators from the Hartford Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service Violent Fugitive Task Forces in Connecticut and Puerto Rico have been working nonstop since the perpetration of this senseless and horrific act of violence in order to apprehend the suspect. This arrest exemplifies the reach these collaborations provide to the pursuit of justice and the close cooperation between the U.S. Marshals Service and our esteemed law enforcement partners.

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