Hector “Boom Boom” Natal knew how to move crack on the street.
He doesn’t know how to read well.
He may know something about an arson fire that killed three people, including an 8‑year-old boy, in Fair Haven earlier this year.
Those first two facts became clear in a federal courtroom Tuesday afternoon.
Speculation about the third statement drew a crowd to what would normally have been a routine plea in a drug case.
The occasion was a decision by 25-year-old Hector “Boom Boom” Natal to change his plea in a federal drug case.
Earlier this year he was arrested for allegedly selling 36.1 grams of packaged crack. Natal originally pleaded not guilty in that case. At 3:56:57 p.m. Tuesday inside a blue-carpeted, white-walled third-floor U.S. District Courtroom, Natal changed course and pronounced the word “guilty” before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis.
The courtroom has but one bench in the back for public spectators. Observers — including a phalanx of investigators from the FBI, state police, and New Haven police and fire departments — filled the bench, some having to stand, to watch the proceedings.
Normally a plea change wouldn’t draw such a crowd. But Natal has emerged as a “person of interest” in a much bigger case: a March 9 arson fire on Wolcott Street that claimed the lives of 42-year-old Wanda Roberson; her son Quayshawn, 8; and Jaquita Roberson, a 21-year-old cousin.
Months after that fire, Natal was arrested on the crack-dealing charges. A federal prosecutor then told a federal courtroom that Natal had confessed on tape to the separate arson case; his family declared his innocence.
The government has not charged Natal in the arson case. A joint federal-state-local task force has been investigating it. Tuesday’s courtroom show of interest reflected that that investigation remains alive.
So did a release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office reminding the public to forward any information in the “ongoing investigation” involving Natal. The number: 203 – 777-6311. The FBI has established a $25,000 reward in the arson case.
Dropped Out At 16
No mention of the arson case was made in Judge Margolis’s courtroom, where the plea change proceedings began around 3:10 p.m.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Reynolds announced that the government had reached a plea deal with Natal. In return for Natal pleading guilty to one of three counts against him in the crack case, the government would recommend that he be sentenced to between 60 months (the federal minimum) and 71 months behind bars. He originally faced up to 40 years.
Under the plea deal, Natal also faces up to between $10,000 and $5 million in fines and a four-year supervised release following his imprisonment. He is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Janet Arterton for sentencing on Dec. 23. Arterton is not bound by the plea agreement.
Natal, his arms heavily tattooed, his hands uncuffed for the appearance, wore loose-fitting tan prison-issue pants and shirt to court. He mumbled one and two-word answers to questions from Judge Margolis as he sat next to his attorney, Paul Thomas.
When the judge asked if Natal had reviewed the plea agreement he signed, Thomas explained that his client has “difficulty” reading. He has also received outpatient treatment for substance abuse in the past, according to Thomas; Natal was a special education student and dropped out of school at 16.
He advanced further in the drug trade, at least for a while, according to the evidence prosecutor Reynolds detailed at the hearing.
Reynolds said that the government relied on a cooperative witness who made repeated recordings of his transactions with Natal both in person and on the phone. One evening the witness, wearing a video recording device, arranged to meet with Natal to purchase crack for street sales. He brought $1,800 provided by the government. The witness and Natal met on Poplar Street, then headed over to Natal’s parents’ house. Natal counted the $1,800 in the bathroom, a scene captured on video, according to Reynolds.
The pair then drove to a house on Wolcott Street not far from the scene of the fatal fire.
The witness parked outside. Natal went behind the house. An “associate” of Natal arrived in a Camry, went to the backyard. Natal then came out to the witness’s car and handed over 36.1 grams of crack packaged in small clear plastic bags.
Natal pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and of actually distributing it.
The crowd in the courtroom Tuesday did not appear to include any of Natal’s relatives.
Afterwards marshals escorted Natal to an elevator and back to jail. They reattached the handcuffs behind his back first.
This is what happens when students drop out of New Haven public schools. This has been going on throughout the entire 18 years of DeStefano/Mayo in office. The graduation rate through 2008 graduating class in New Haven is a paltry 51.5%. Half of New Haven's students never get a diploma. At Wilbur Cross this year, just 310 kids are projected to graduate, out of an incoming Freshman class of 657.
One would not know this by all the hype surrounding Promise and the bastardized use of the word "Reform."