United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

BRIDGEPORT MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PERJURY

Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ANGEL CABRERA, age 33, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today to perjury charges before United States Magistrate Judge William I. Garfinkel in Bridgeport federal court.

According to court documents, CABRERA perjured himself when he testified in his own behalf during a detention hearing on April 30, 2002. Specifically, CABRERA testified and lied in federal court concerning his whereabouts on July 1, 1999, the night that a drive-by shooting occurred in Bridgeport, which resulted in the death of Derek Owens and severe injury to Marquis Young. On April 30, 2002, during his testimony in federal court, CABRERA told United States Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons that he had been at a motel in Stamford, Connecticut. In fact, CABRERA had checked into a motel in Fairfield shortly after the shooting occurred.

In January 2001, after offering an alibi defense, which included false testimony that he was at the motel in Stamford, CABRERA was acquitted by a state court jury of murder and assault charges relating to the July 1, 1999, shooting. During a subsequent federal investigation into the racketeering operation of the Burden Organization, investigators determined that, in fact, CABRERA did not stay in Stamford, but rather at a motel in Fairfield that was just minutes away from the scene of the drive-by shooting.

In related federal proceedings, Kelvin Burden and Jermaine Buchanan, both members of the Burden Organization, were convicted after a jury trial on federal racketeering and narcotics charges involving, among other violent crimes, the July 1, 1999, shooting incident. Burden was sentenced to life in prison by United States District Judge Janet C. Hall on November 5, 2003. Buchanan is scheduled to be sentenced on February 3, 2004, and faces up to life in prison. CABRERA is not and was not a member of the Burden Organization.

CABRERA faces up to five years in prison, $250,000 in fines, and up to three years of supervised release when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall on April 9, 2004.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in conjunction with state and local authorities, notably the Norwalk Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Robert M. Appleton, Brian E. Spears and Stephen B. Reynolds prosecuted the case.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov