Teen pleads not guilty to murder in fatal Lower East Side apartment shooting
A second teenager was ordered held without bail in Manhattan court on Wednesday in connection with the
Joshua Bell, 19, appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court before Judge Curtis Farber on an indictment charging him with murder, robbery, burglary and weapons possession. Prosecutors allege he was one of two masked thieves who
Bell pleaded not guilty to the charges on Wednesday. Prosecutors said he was arrested in South Carolina after police tracked him there and surrounded the house where he was staying. Officers recovered a loaded Smith & Wesson gun inside, according to prosecutors. Bell was then extradited to New York City, where police said he had at some point been living at the Amsterdam Houses on the Upper West Side.
Bell’s attorney, Michael Hurwitz, asked for his client to be granted bail, saying evidence in the case suggested Bell was not the person who shot Liu.
“Legally it doesn’t matter if he had the gun. … It’s murder in the second degree,” Assistant District Attorney Antoinette Carter responded. “It’s not just that he fled after committing the most serious crime one can commit. He may have had help from people in his family.”
She added that prosecutors' evidence includes 911 calls, surveillance and police body-worn camera video, and Liu’s autopsy report.
