A gay teen who stabbed to death a classmate in what he called self-defense tried to start a fight with his alleged bully in the moments before he plunged a switchblade into the other boy’s chest, an emotional classmate testified Monday.
Abel Cedeno, 18, is accused of fatally stabbing Matthew McCree, 15, and slashing Ariane LaBoy, 16, at their Bronx high school in 2017. He faces up to 25 years in prison on manslaughter charges.
Testifying on the second day of the non-jury trial in Bronx Supreme Court, classmate Aanaiya Santiago, 17, refuted Cedeno’s claims that he feared for his life in the third-period history class on Sept. 27, 2017.
Santiago said McCree and LaBoy were throwing paper wadded into balls into a waste basket inside the classroom at now-shuttered Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in East Tremont when one flew in Abel’s direction as he was leaving the classroom.
“Abel then shouted, ‘Who threw the paper? Who the f— threw the paper?'” Santiago told the court.
McCree confessed and apologized, telling him: “I’m sorry, it wasn’t meant for you,” Santiago said, before Cedeno started calling his classmates “pussies” and challenged McCree to a fight.
“Pull up, pull up,” Cedeno said, which Santiago testified was lingo used to initiate a fight.
Another classmate who testified on Monday said Cedeno had been acting “aggressively” in the moments before the attack, but attorneys for the teen — who later came out as bisexual — said he feared for his life that morning and reached a breaking point after years of bullying.
Cellphone footage of the attack played in court showed Cedeno rushing at McCree inside the classroom before the pair exchange blows.
When defense attorney Robert Feldman tried to replay the footage in the afternoon while Santiago was on the stand, she began crying and turned away from the court before Justice Michael Gross handed her tissues.
“I don’t want to watch the video,” Santiago said, crying.
Throughout the trial Cedeno has sported a rainbow heart pinned to the label of a navy suit and his lawyers, both openly gay men, are representing him pro bono.
On Friday, attorney Christopher Lynn painted his client as the real victim and said the knife was to protect him from “physical harm.”
But prosecutors argue Cedeno knew exactly what he was doing and planned the stabbing when he brought the illegal switchblade to school.
“Abel Cedeno made choices that purposely caused death and injury,” Assistant District Attorney Nancy Borko said during opening remarks on Friday.
“Matthew McCree might have got a slap or a punch in. Abel Cedeno gets a stab to the chest in,” she continued.
“He brought an illegal knife to school and he was looking for an opportunity to use it.”
Cedeno and his family are now suing the Department of Education, claiming teachers failed to protect him from fellow students who tormented him for years with homophobic slurs and physical attacks.
McCree’s mother has vehemently denied her son was a bully and on Monday echoed comments from the prosecution.
“He knew what he was doing, he had an agenda,” Louna Dennis claimed.
Stabbing victim LaBoy will take the stand on Tuesday.