Prometheus 6

Newark Triple Murder Suspect Gets 8 Years in Assault
By KAREEM FAHIM

NEWARK — Jose Lachira Carranza, one of six suspects accused of killing three people in a playground last summer, was sentenced on Monday to eight years in prison for assaulting two men during a bar fight in 2006.

The bar brawl drew attention soon after the playground killings, when it was disclosed that Mr. Carranza, 29, an illegal immigrant from Peru, could have been detained by federal authorities after his arrest for assault.

Mr. Carranza was also arrested in 2007, before the Newark playground killings, on charges that he sexually assaulted a child over a four-year period.

The bar fight, at Huguito’s, of West Orange, started with a shoving match involving a friend of Mr. Carranza’s, according to witnesses and the police. In the ensuing violence, Mr. Carranza broke bottles and threw chairs, badly injuring several men.