Shakeem Parker has been acquitted in the 2021 murder of notorious drug dealer-turned-snitch Alpo Martinez.
The 30-year-old Harlem resident was already in custody on Rikers Island for a previous gun case when he was arrested for killing Alpo and had been in jail since.
There was an assumption that Alpo’s murder was drug-related. Â The 55-year-old had ditched his witness-protected life in Maine, and the word was he was back in the NYC drug trade.
However, prosecutors argued Parker shot Alpo to death on a Harlem street Halloween night because he was angry that Martinez, who has a history of reckless driving, had hit Parker with his motorcycle months earlier.
Alpo Martinez was notorious for admitting to involvement in at least 14 drug-related murders in New York and Washington, D.C., in the 80s. Facing a possible death penalty, he struck a deal with prosecutors and ended up serving 20 years in prison in exchange for testifying against another dealer in Washington, D.C.
Cam’ron immortalized Alpo as “Rico” in the hood classic Paid In Full.