x
Breaking News
More () »

Man pleads guilty to first degree murder in 2013 shooting death of Harrisburg man

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Daniel Negron-Rosario, 30, pleaded guilty in Dauphin County Court on Tuesday to the first degree murder of Rafael Diaz-Cosme.  Diaz-Cosm...
Daniel Negron-Rosario

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Daniel Negron-Rosario, 30, pleaded guilty in Dauphin County Court on Tuesday to the first degree murder of Rafael Diaz-Cosme.  Diaz-Cosme was killed in the September 18, 2013 in the 1400 block of Hunter Street, Harrisburg.

Negron-Rosario admitted to shooting Diaz-Cosme over a drug debt owed by the victim to Negron-Rosario. The Commonwealth agreed not to seek the death penalty in return for Negron-Rosario’s plea of guilty to all charges. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Chief Deputy District Attorney Seán​ M. McCormack praised the hard work of Harrisburg City Police Detective Quinten Kennedy. “This was a case that could have easily gone unsolved. A number of potential witnesses were reluctant at first to provide information to the police. Detective Kennedy worked hard to track down any lead that came his way, and ultimately his hard work paid off.”

During the course of the investigation into the shooting death of Diaz-Cosme, it came to the attention of Harrisburg Police detectives that Daniel Negron-Rosario might have information about the shooting. On January 9, 2014, Detective Quinten Kennedy interviewed Negron-Rosario. During that interview, Negron-Rosario told Det. Kennedy that he witnessed another man shoot and kill Diaz-Cosme. He then agreed to submit to a polygraph examination to verify the truthfulness of his statement. Negron-Rosario was scheduled to take his polygraph on January 22, 2014. Before taking the polygraph he asked to speak with Detective Kennedy and tell him the truth about Diaz-Cosme’s death. He then confessed that he was the person that shoot and killed Diaz-Cosme.

Daniel Negron-Rosario told Detective Kennedy that Diaz-Cosme owed him money and as a result he decided to kill Diaz-Cosme. He tried at first to drop something on the ground in the hope that when Diaz-Cosme bent down to pick up the item, Negron-Rosario could shoot him in the back of the head and kill him. When Diaz-Cosme did not bend down, Negron-Rosario just decided to shoot him standing up. After he fired his first shot at Diaz-Cosme, Diaz-Cosme begged Negron-Rosario not to kill him. Daniel Negron-Rosario then fired two more gunshots striking and killing Diaz-Cosme.

Daniel Negron-Rosario, was previously convicted on December 4, 2001 of Second Degree Murder in Puerto Rico. Negron-Rosario was 15 years old at the time when he committed that murder. His victim was 16 years old. He spent approximately 12 years in prison in Puerto Rico for that crime. Not long after his release from prison he moved to Harrisburg.

After killing Diaz-Cosme, but before his arrest for that murder, Negron-Rosario was involved in an incident in Cumberland County in December 2013, where he discharged a rifle at a police vehicle that was involved in a hot pursuit with the car in which Negron-Rosario was a passenger. Negron-Rosario took a jury trial in that case and was found guilty by a Cumberland County jury. In January 2015, he was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison for Assault of a Law Enforcement Official.

Chief Deputy District Attorney McCormack remarked that “Daniel Negron-Rosario is a very violent and dangerous man who has demonstrated that he is unable to live a peaceful life outside of prison. We can all rest easier knowing that he will be spending the remainder of his life behind bars.”

Before You Leave, Check This Out