The suspect in a 15-year-old Queens murder was caught because his truck windows were improperly tinted, prosecutors said yesterday.
Nelson Diaz, 35, went on trial yesterday in the cold-case 1989 murder of 16-year-old Juan Cabrera, who was stabbed to death during a gang melee in Corona.
The police still had Diaz on their “wanted list” in the early morning of St. Patrick’s Day 2004, when Capt. Richard Napolitano pulled him over in Whitestone for tinted windows on his truck.
Napolitano testified yesterday that he didn’t write up Diaz immediately – and he almost escaped due to a computer glitch.
The captain called Diaz’s name into the precinct to have it run through the database but was told the system was down, so he let Diaz go.
“They called me back five minutes later and said, ‘Do you still have that guy? He’s wanted for a homicide,’ ” Napolitano testified.
Cops traced the truck registration, and Diaz, a personal trainer, was arrested about four hours later.
Despite the computer foul-up, the lucky traffic stop enabled prosecutors to put him on trial for the June 12, 1989, gang attack on three teens near 37th Avenue and 101st Street in Corona.
Prosecutors said Diaz stabbed Cabrera four times – once deep enough to cut his aorta and pierce his heart.
“He was unarmed, defenseless and spending some time with his high-school friends,” said Assistant DA Peter Lomp.