US Marshals arrest Waterbury, Connecticut’s Lance Benuet Morales in Fajardo, Puerto Rico

Lance “Macho” Benuet Morales, 23, of Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States has been arrested in Puerto Rico, USA. He will be extradited to Connecticut.

This is not the first time Morales was arrested. After serving three years for attempted assault, he was released from prison earlier this year.

What happened to Jessiah Mercado and Messiah Diaz?

Jessiah Mercado of Springfield, Massachusetts, USA and her son Messiah Diaz have died. She was 20.

Mercado gave birth to Diaz in July 2024. On November 19, 2024, they were in a car with a man, whose name was not released, when they were shot allegedly by Morales during a dispute over a vehicle in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut.

Morales and Mercado were acquaintances. Both she and Diaz died while the man they were with was injured but he survived.

The Hartford Police Department identified Morales as the prime suspect in the shooting and issued a warrant for his arrest. He was charged with first-degree assault, criminal attempt to commit first-degree assault, criminal possession of a firearm, murder with special circumstances and two counts of murder.

On November 20, 2024, acting Hartford Police Department chief Kenny Howell urged Morales to turn himself in. After developing information that the suspect had fled to Puerto Rico, the districts of the U.S. Marshals Service in Connecticut and Massachusetts sent a collateral lead to the the Violent Fugitive Task Force of the agency’s district in Puerto Rico.

On November 23, 2024, the task force found Morales at a residence in Fajardo, Puerto Rico and took him into custody. After being processed at the Fajardo Police Department, he was formally charged as a fugitive from justice.

Bond for Morales was set at $3 million. His arrest is “a testament to the close collaboration between the U.S. Marshals Service and our valued law enforcement partners and it demonstrates the reach these partnerships bring to the pursuit of justice,” according to Lawrence Bobnick, the acting U.S. Marshal for the District of Connecticut.