Man Arrested in 2006 Death of Bronx Boy, 2

Prosecutors on Friday announced new charges in the death of a 2-year-old boy who was killed by a stray bullet heading to church with his family on Easter Sunday in the Bronx in 2006.

Daryl Hemphill was arrested in Raleigh, N.C. earlier this week, officials said. He waived extradition from North Carolina and was returned to the Bronx, where he pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

The judge ordered Hemphill held without bail. 

The toddler, David Pacheco, was strapped in a baby seat in his family's car at the intersection of Harrison and East Tremont avenues when a bullet flew through the window, prosecutors said. It entered the boy's chest, went through his lung, severed his spinal column and killed him.

"My pain never goes away," the boy's mother, Joanne Sanabria, said Friday. "It's everything, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year." 

Prosecutors said Hemphill had been assaulted in a fight earlier that day. He returned to the Bronx corner with a gun and started firing at the men who beat him, but he missed and hit David instead.

Multiple witnesses recognized Hemphill because he was wearing a bright blue sweater, and his DNA was found on the sweater, according to authorities.

Hemphill's attorney, Eric Sears, said, "DNA can be ambiguous, just like any other sort of evidence." 

The suspect who was arrested shortly after the shooting, Nicholas Morris, was freed after a mistrial. Morris was a friend of Hemphill who showed up at the scene after the shooting, while Hemphill immediately moved his family to North Carolina, prosecutors said. 

"I just want closure," said Sanabria. "Nothing's going to bring him back. Nothing is ever going to bring him back." 

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