Prosecutors yesterday charged a third man in a 15-year-old murder of a security guard at the Palladium nightclub.
Thomas “Spanky” Morales was arrested yesterday and charged with second-degree murder in the 1990 shooting of Marcus Peterson at the 14th Street club.
Two clubgoers, David Lemus and Olmado Hidalgo, have spent 12 years behind bars for the murder, and their convictions survived appeals. Both men have filed to overturn the convictions, and a judge will hear their case Monday.
Former Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, who was not involved with the trial, and the jury forewoman have called for a new trial, saying “a mountain of evidence has emerged.”
The men contend that crucial evidence was withheld from them at trial.
The trouble began when Lemus got into a fight with the club’s security staff, took some friends to a nearby parking lot and returned with guns, according to Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau.
They opened fire on a group of staffers, hitting two men as they tried to flee.