By Matthew Purdy

June 17, 1994 

A Bronx man was convicted yesterday in the murder of six people on Valentine's Day 1993, a killing prosecutors called "a crime of unspeakable horror" meant as revenge against one of the victims for slapping the defendant's wife.

Anthony Casellas, 22, was found guilty of murder and conspiracy in the deaths of three adults and three children whom the police said were lined up on the living room floor of a Mott Haven apartment and each shot through the head. Four other defendants facing charges related to the killings are awaiting trial.

Caught in Tale of Revenge and Death

By David Gonzalez - The New York Times

February 28, 1993

To those who knew him, Elliot Lopez did not seem to be the sort of teen-ager likely to be seduced by the street code of easy money, short tempers and rapid retribution. A star athlete with a ready smile, his goal was college and a way out of a South Bronx neighborhood whose streetcorners were dotted with dozens of other young men who had long ago traded the promise of the future for the grim pickings of the present.

But there were times when it appeared that his perspective on the crazy life was more than that of an outsider.

"He knew some wild people," recalled Kent Wargowsky, his track coach at Morris High School, who remembered him being greeted on the street by swaggering young men with gold chains. "Elliot was such a nice person, yet he knew who the bad people were, but not, like, stay away from them."

One person Mr. Lopez knew was Anthony Casellas -- his sister was a friend of Mr. Casellas's wife, Lourdes. Flanked by his associates, Mr. Casellas strode through the streets near East 161st Street and Tinton Avenue, leading a loosely knit drug gang, neighbors and the police say.

 'Tato' and 'Ding Ding'

At some point -- no one seemed quite sure when -- Elliot joined his crew. They grew close; on the street, Elliot Lopez and Anthony Casellas were known as "Tato" and "Ding-Ding." And last week they were arrested and charged with being the gunmen who lined six people up, face down, in a Mott Haven apartment on St. Valentine's Day and killed them with single shots to the head. The motive, the police say, was to avenge Mr. Casellas's bruised honor after his wife had been beaten up last summer in a fight stemming from a long-running feud.

Last Wednesday, the authorities say, the revenge came full circle at the entrance to the Bronx County Building, when Lourdes Casellas was fatally shot by a friend of one of the Mott Haven victims. To the people who know Mr. Lopez, the disquieting thought is how he could have had anything to do with the violent revenge.

In part, the two contrasted sharply: neatly dressed and respectful, Mr. Lopez avoided running with any one clique. He was even-tempered, puzzled by the violence around him. He had finished high school and had been accepted to Baruch College, although he never enrolled.

But people in the neighborhood weren't even sure if Mr. Casellas had finished junior high school, and they remembered his predilection for the funky, baggy clothes -- the high fashion of the street -- and how his temper was best left unprovoked.

Thomas Rinaldi, Mr. Lopez's 11th grade English teacher, remembered Elliot as one of several students who seemed to be "on the fence."

"They were at that point where they were going to make a decision," he said. "Temptations were presenting themselves."

Friendly to Everyone

He was a gregarious, can-do type who got along with everybody. That was no small accomplishment in a place where the orbits of adolescent cliques curtail easy interaction.

His home life, according to his teachers and a few neighbohrood acquaintances, was mixed: his mother and stepfather were quiet, hardworking people who lived with his siblings in an apartment on the 11th floor of the McKinley Houses, a Bronx project. But his two brothers had had scrapes with the law and jail, his teachers recalled.

A woman who answered the door at the family's apartment said their lawyer had advised them not to comment.

His stepfather, a former professional heavyweight boxer, works in contruction, said the owner of a grocery store across the street.

Mr. Lopez's teachers said he was a jokester. In high school, he started a small business, hiring himself out as a clown for parties and showing up at school events dressed in shorts and a tie that dangled near to the floor.

He was also an athlete who excelled at cross-country running and basketball. His track coach said the young man was almost "like a pacifist," shunning the violence that sometimes erupted within the walls of the school.

A Beloved Son

"He did not run to blood," said Mr. Wargowsky. "If there was a stabbing at the school, he would stand against the wall and say it was stupid."

But he had his passions, especially the son he had with a previous girlfriend. Mr. Wargowsky recalled how the teen-ager would buy clothes for the child. "I know the commitment to his son was hard," he said.

And so was, his teachers thought, his commitment to the future.

"He acted as if he really wanted out of his neighborhood," said Mr. Wargowsky.

But there were glimpses of another life.

During some trips to Manhattan, Mr. Wargowsky recalled how Mr. Lopez would seem to be known to everyone, especially the stone-faced youths on street corners. One day they went to a store to buy a soda after a brisk jog when a man wearing gold chains and flashing a gold-toothed smile greeted Mr. Lopez.

"He'd say, 'That used to be me,' " said Mr. Wargowsky. "It seemed like he was a person who knew what it was about but stayed out. He was not naive."

Along the crowded, littered streets of Mott Haven, where burned-out apartment buildings loom above abandoned cars and wild youth, Mr. Casellas cultivated a tough reputation.

Several residents -- none of whom would give their names for fear of retaiiation -- described him as a smooth-talking man who routinely dressed in the latest style and was often seen outside a bodega near 161st Street, mingling with youths from the neighborhood.

Girls, Cars and Gold

"What they were about was having girls, nice cars and gold," said one man who knew Mr. Casellas and his friends.

In August 1992, he was held on Rikers Island on a drug charge. Three years earlier, he served six months drug charges. Police records show he also has convictions for assault, robbery, theft with a deadly weapon and unlawful imprisonment.

Maria Santana, a neighborhood woman, was drawn to Mr. Casellas -- an attraction that the police say ultimately cost her her life. She was the sister of Edwin Santiago, apparently the focus of the slayings on Feb. 14.

Anthony and Maria began dating about two years ago and soon he virtually lived with her family, spending many nights at their apartment, where Maria's mother, Julia, cooked for him and did his laundry.

And while Maria wanted to marry him, according to one woman, he seemed interested only in the practical advantages of the relationship. "I don't think he wanted to marry her," said the woman, a friend of Maria Sanatana. "I always felt that he was just using her."

Even during one of his prison terms, Maria Santana remained devoted. "She used to send him money so he could buy stuff at the commissary," the friend said. "And he used to phone her collect."

When he was released, Mr. Casellas's romantic interest wandered toward Maria's old friend, Lourdes Serrano. Mr. Casellas and Ms. Serrano, those who knew them say, dated without Maria Santana's knowledge.

When Maria Santana found out about their clandestine romance, she severed her ties to both of them. About a year ago, Mr. Casellas married Ms. Serrano, and she later gave birth to their son.

The animosity between his wife and his former girlfriend grew, eventually erupting in a fight on a Bronx street last summer. During the fight, Maria Santana's brother, Edwin Santiago, came to his sister's defense and slapped the other woman, causing her to drop her baby.

Plotting From Prison

The police say that Mr. Casellas began plotting the killings sometime after August 1992, when Mrs. Casellas visited her husband at Rikers Island and told him about the fight.

At the same time, Mrs. Casellas was growing close to Mr. Lopez and his sister, according to their friends.

The friendship between Mr. Lopez and the Casellases was such that Mr. Lopez planned to bring his clown act to a birthday party for the Casellases' son in March.

"They were tight," said the 18-year-old friend.

The week before the slayings, according to one woman, Mr. Casellas went to the Santiago-Santana home, professing his love for the people he would later be accused of murdering. The police said Mr. Casellas and Mr. Lopez, along with three friends, returned to that apartment to extract their revenge on the youth who had slapped Lourdes Casellas. Five others were killed for reasons the police may never know.

Ten days later, a friend of the victims shot and killed Lourdes Casellas.

At the end of a tale of revenge twice taken, seven people are dead and six have been locked up and charged with murder.

"I don't think there's anybody out there with any further axe to grind," said one investigator. "The main players are in custody. We don't feel there's anybody else there left to shoot."