A 39-year-old Lower East Side man has pleaded guilty to gunning down 18-year-old Eliahs Brazoban near Rivington and Pitt Streets in June 2023, after stalking him on an e-bike through the neighborhood in the moments before the shooting. Jonathan Morales entered his plea to one count of murder in the second degree in New York State Supreme Court, and is expected to be sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison on November 20, 2026.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the plea in a post on X, writing that his office had secured accountability in the killing. According to court documents cited by Alvin Bragg
, Morales targeted Brazoban over an alleged underlying conflict involving someone close to him. Bragg said Morales murdered Brazoban “in a brutal, premeditated attack on a Manhattan sidewalk.”
Court documents describe a chilling sequence of events on June 25, 2023. Morales rode an e-bike past Brazoban near Clinton and Delancey Streets, then watched his whereabouts before parking near a median by the Williamsburg Bridge. He trailed Brazoban on the e-bike before firing shots near Rivington and Pitt Streets. Brazoban collapsed at a nearby store and was later pronounced dead from the gunshot wound.
A Shooting Rooted in the Same Housing Complex
Brazoban and Morales lived in neighboring towers of the same public housing complex, according to The Village Sun, with Morales residing at 525 F.D.R. Drive and Brazoban at 555 F.D.R. Drive within the Baruch Houses. Responding officers found Brazoban with a single gunshot wound to the neck outside the Rivington Food deli at Rivington and Pitt Streets shortly after midnight, and he was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where he was declared dead, the outlet reported. Morales was not arrested until roughly 6 a.m. on September 22, 2023, nearly three months after the shooting, following an extended NYPD investigation.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has described rivalries involving groups known as “Up the Hill” and “Down the Hill” around NYCHA developments like the Baruch and Wald Houses. Gothamist also reported on a teenager who was shot and killed in New York City.
A Teen Working Toward a GED and a Driver's Permit
At the time of his death, Brazoban was enrolled in Avenues for Justice, an East Village-based alternative-to-incarceration program he had joined in July 2021, and he had received the program's 2022 “Andy Award” for most improved in music, the same Village Sun report notes. Avenues for Justice operates a Family Court Diversion program requiring eight workshops, after which a case would be dismissed.
Prior to his death, Brazoban had worked with court advocates to set goals that included earning his driver's permit, enrolling in paid workforce training, and preparing for his GED, according to Avenues for Justice. The program's account of his final months underscores the gap between his rehabilitative efforts and the violence that ultimately claimed his life just steps from where he lived.
Sentencing Set for November as Legal Team Details Emerge
Morales's guilty plea to second-degree murder is expected to result in a sentence of 20 years to life.
Assistant District Attorneys Christine Keenan and Candance White handled the prosecution, supervised by Nicole Blumberg, chief of Trial Bureau 40, and Lisa Delpizzo, chief of the Trial Division. John Floria and Patrick Sullivan also assisted, with Abigail Hartz and Troy McLean having previously worked on the case. Bragg thanked the New York City Police Department, including NYPD Detective Patrick Lynaugh and retired Detective Joseph Cohen, for their work on the investigation.
A Familiar Pattern for the 7th Precinct
The shooting fell within the jurisdiction of the NYPD's 7th Precinct, which covers a compact 0.62-square-mile footprint on the Lower East Side, making it the second-smallest geographic police command in New York City while it patrols dense commercial corridors and public housing developments, Hoodline has previously reported. The precinct has logged a string of violent incidents in recent months, including a 16-year-old shot on Madison Street and a 26-year-old shot in the back during a late-night attack. Morales's sentencing is scheduled for November 20, 2026.
