Two Lynn killers up for parole hearings

LYNN – Two men convicted of unrelated Lynn murders that occurred five days apart in 1995 will face the state Parole Board in June to plead for release.Joseph “Jose” Vazquez Jr. was a 32-year-old roofer when he beat a 60-year-old Washington Street man to death with a metal pipe on Aug. 17, marking the city’s fifth murder of that year.The victim, private mail courier Acie P. Avery, was found on the floor of his one-room apartment by his son, Marvin, who had received a call from the man’s employer after he failed to show up for work.Rather than face a murder trial, Vazquez opted to plea-bargain his case, admitting to a reduced charge of second-degree murder and making him eligible for parole after 15 years. If convicted of first-degree murder, he would have no chance of parole.Vazquez, who lived in the same Washington Street neighborhood, was heard arguing with Avery shortly before the murder. Police found the 18-inch pipe with one end taped in a row of hedges outside the apartment building where the crime occurred.The second case before the Parole Board concerns Amilcar Delacruz, formerly of the Cobbet Hill apartments on Essex Street. Delacruz confessed to fatally shooting Laura Argeorgitis, 17, of Swampscott, in Central Square on Aug. 22.Delacruz, a former Lynn Tech student who was 16 at the time and considered a minor, told authorities he killed Argeorgitis because she was trying to convince his girlfriend, Jamie Pasquale, to drop him. Pasquale met Delacruz at an Everett-based program for adolescents. They struck up a relationship but Pasquale later decided to end it.Argeorgitis – an only child with aspirations to become a rap star – and Pasquale were cousins and good friends. According to Anne Pasquale, Amilicar was in a jealous rage, adding that the bullet was meant for her daughter, Jamie, but struck Argeogitis instead.The victim was shot in the face, chest and back with a .25-caliber handgun. As she lay dying on the sidewalk near the bus stop on Mount Vernon Street, Delacruz pumped a last bullet into her body.Steve O’Connell, a spokesman for Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said office prosecutors plan to attend both hearings on June 22 to orally argue against release. “They will also be submitting written arguments that day on why these men should not be paroled,” he said.Delacruz pleaded guilty in second-degree murder in 1999, receiving a life sentence with possibility of parole after 15 years. He was credited with serving three years while awaiting trial.