In the winter of 2015, on the evening of February 16th, a young man's life was cut short on the streets of Schenectady, New York. Carlos Figueroa, a 26-year-old male, was fatally shot in the Hamilton Hill neighborhood. The incident, which marked the city's first homicide of the year, was not a random act of violence but the tragic culmination of a drug deal gone wrong. Figueroa, a father of two young daughters, was a lifelong resident of the area and worked in construction.
He had recently celebrated his first wedding anniversary and his 26th birthday.
The investigation into Figueroa's death revealed a plot where both parties involved in a planned marijuana transaction intended to rob the other. The fatal encounter occurred on Paige Street, just down the road from where Figueroa lived. Authorities stated that Figueroa was shot once in the neck at close range. The ensuing investigation led to the arrest of four individuals connected to the crime.
The man identified as the shooter, Carlson Nunes, 23 at the time, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Also facing a second-degree murder charge was his girlfriend, 22-year-old Yunis Johnson. Another man, Sheiquan Parker, 22, was the third person to be charged with second-degree murder in the case. The fourth individual, Nunes' half-brother, a 23-year-old from Troy, was charged with robbery for his role in the incident.
In April 2016, Carlson Nunes was sentenced to 22 years to life in prison for the murder of Carlos Figueroa. The court heard that Nunes and his accomplices had planned to rob Figueroa of a quarter-pound of marijuana. When they discovered the marijuana was not real, an altercation ensued, during which Nunes pistol-whipped Figueroa before shooting him in the neck. The victim's father expressed that while the sentence was lengthy, it would never replace the life of his son.
