The man accused of killing Queens Imam Maulama Alauddin Akonjee greeted cops at his door, uttering, “I knew you were coming,” when they arrived to arrest him.
Prosecutors detailed Oscar Morel’s eerie salutation Thursday during his arraignment in Queens Supreme Court.
Shortly after his arrest, Morel admitted to cops “that he wears glasses,” prosecutors said–contradicting his previous claim that he couldn’t possibly be the bespectacled perp portrayed in the police sketch, because he doesn’t wear glasses.
Defense attorney Michael Schwed entered a “not guilty” plea on behalf of his client before the packed gallery, which included the imam’s son and Morel’s parents and brother.
Schwed asked Queens Criminal Court Justice Gregory Lasak to consider setting bail for his client, citing a witnesses’ botched identification of Morel in a photo array.
But that request sparked the ire of ADA Peter Lomp, who insisted his office had a “potent case” of the defendant’s guilt, “primarily based off of ballistics evidence.”
“The gun recovered from his home was scientifically discovered to be the gun used in this murder and there is ample corroborations of the defendant’s involvement in this case,” Lomp said, adding the gun and 5 shell casings were discovered shoved in a bag and entombed in the walls of Morel’s home.
Five bullets were discovered in Akonjee’s body, the ADA said.
Judge Lasak declined to grant bail.
Outside the courthouse, Schwed indicated plans to hire a private investigator– to prove cops “may have planted evidence” on his client, in order to cover up “firing their guns improperly.”
Morel is scheduled to return to court Oct. 18.