On the face of it, the retrial of Roberto Morales is Assistant D.A. Joe Estrada's big break. The victim was Morales' mistress, a woman of distracting beauty who was brutally raped and murdered on an office couch in a Manhattan skyscraper. The accused is a self-made millionaire and benefactor to the Hispanic community of Brooklyn. The first trial was a political and racial circus, the new one will be even more high profile. An ambitious young prosecutor could hardly ask for more.
But, three years down the track, the case against Morales has gone cold, once-solid witnesses no longer remember or have changed their stories, the victim's flaky sister is on Estrada's back and the political stakes are that much higher. Suddenly it looks like Joe Estrada's big break might just break his career instead . . .
