Salem gun suspect who fled naked goes on trial

By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

May 08, 2008 05:45 am

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SALEM — The trial of a Salem man who police said tried to flee by climbing naked out a fifth-floor window in 2006 got underway yesterday afternoon in Salem District Court.

Police had gone to the apartment at 260 Washington St. on the afternoon of Nov. 17 to search for guns they believed Jose Morales, 24, had there illegally.

When Morales didn't answer the door after several knocks, police used a battering ram to get inside.

As detectives and a patrolman made their way through the dark apartment, two other detectives waited outside. Suddenly, they heard Sgt. James Page yelling, "Gun, gun."

Page was outside, he testified yesterday, when he saw a naked Morales climbing out the window with a rifle in his hand.

Morales then dropped the rifle and a smaller handgun to the ground below, Page said.

Meanwhile, officers who were inside the apartment rushed toward a bedroom.

Detective Tom Brennan saw a pair of hands on the window ledge. He and another detective, Steven Bona, grabbed Morales' hands and pulled him inside.

Morales had been balancing on what was left of a porch frame on the outside of the old apartment house.

Police seized the two guns, neither of which Morales had a license to carry, and found the painkiller OxyContin and the mood-altering drug Ecstasy inside the apartment, according to a police report.

Defense lawyer Ray Buso questioned the sequence of events — and why Page's testimony about seeing Morales holding the guns before he dropped them was at odds with Brennan's report that the guns were thrown out the window before Morales climbed out onto the ledge.

The trial is expected to resume tomorrow morning.

There was no testimony yesterday about exactly why Morales was naked at 4 in the afternoon, but police at the time of his arrest said they believed he had been in bed sleeping when they showed up.