Paterson man pleads guilty to shooting man outside Park Avenue pizza shop
By Jonathan Greene
Published: October 20, 2016
A city man pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter for shooting and killing a 24-year-old restaurant employee outside of the Park Avenue pizzeria, according to the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.
Joseph Borges, 27-year-old, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter before judge Adam E. Jacobs at the Passaic County Superior Court on Thursday afternoon.
Prosecutors will recommend Borges receives a 20-year prison sentence for shooting and killing 24-year-old city resident Raymond Torres.
Torres and Borges engaged in a verbal dispute outside of Big Chris’s Pizzeria on Park Avenue on September 8, 2014 that ended with Torres punching Borges in the face. Several hours later, Borges returned to the pizzeria at 106 Park Avenue with a .380 caliber handgun.
Torres, an employee at the pizza shop, got out the pizzeria. Borges fired six shots. Torres was wounded in the lower back. He died from his injuries.
Borges’s sentencing is scheduled for January 20, 2017.