Man who killed Kassandra Morales receives four life sentences for 2018 murder

WEST PALM BEACH – A year before he killed 24-year-old Kassandra Morales, Marcus Hull told a police officer he “shoots a lot and with precision.”

At a murder trial in May, the Lake Worth Beach resident said the opposite was true: The bullets that struck Morales and injured three other people in a nightclub parking lot were fired accidentally, and he pulled the trigger to disperse the strangers – not to hurt them.

The jury didn’t believe him. They deliberated for six hours before finding Hull, 33, guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault with a firearm and discharging a firearm. District Judge Jeffrey Gillen sentenced him to four consecutive life sentences on Monday, July 1.

Before his trial, Hull rejected a deal with prosecutors that called for a 45-year prison sentence and instead fought the charges. At the sentencing hearing on Monday, he apologized to Morales’ family, thanked them for the kindness they had shown his wife and prayed for her to find peace.

Yani Pena, Morales’ sister-in-law, read a letter recalling the joy of her life and the horror when it ended.

“You have destroyed and wrecked the lives of those you loved most, while simultaneously destroying your life and the lives of those around you,” she told Hull. “I feel in my heart that you would take this moment back if you could. However, the law of men has found you guilty, and for your crime, you will spend the rest of your life behind bars.”

Chance encounter at La Isla nightclub led to fatal shooting

Hull killed the Greenacres mother of two outside the La Isla Del Encanto nightclub near Palm Springs on April 29, 2018. He also injured two security guards and a passerby before fleeing the parking lot and eventually the state.

Anthony Lorenzano, one of three friends who accompanied Hull to the club the night of the shooting, told attorneys that Hull was “the kind of person who, when he gets angry, will shoot you.” Assistant Public Defender Stephanie Gagerie insisted that Hull did not mean to kill anyone.

Lorenzano said he and Hull happened to arrive at the club well after midnight; they were hungry and La Isla was still selling food late into the night. While the men ate chicken and plantains, Morales and her boyfriend shared a bottle of Hennessy with their friends Kelvin Fajardo and Gabriel Delcid at a nearby table.

The two groups crossed paths shortly after 2 a.m. when Hull and Lorenzano went outside to smoke cigarettes. Morales’ group had left the nightclub a minute earlier to call an Uber for Delcid. Morales and her companions were strangers to Hull, but Hull said he saw a look of recognition between Lorenzano and Fajardo.

The men had a “long-running dispute” over a woman, Assistant District Attorney Francine Edwards told the jury. Their argument sparked a brief but explosive brawl between the groups outside the nightclub.

“Fists were thrown,” said the prosecutor. “There were punches. Glasses fell off.”

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Someone threw Hull, who was 6’1″ and weighed 250 pounds, onto his back.

By the time club security broke up the fight and began escorting Morales’ group away, Hull had returned to his gray Chevrolet Equinox alone. He said Lorenzano, still searching for his glasses, was nowhere to be seen.

“Reasonably believing that his friend was still being attacked, he did the only thing he could at that moment to help,” Gagerie told jurors.

Hull started the car, turned off the headlights and drove to the entrance of the nightclub, where he fired several shots out the window. According to Gagerie, he aimed at the ground.

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Investigators found murder weapon in the house of Hull’s relative

Fajardo called Morales’ mother at 2:16 a.m. “You have to come here,” he told her, “Kassandra was shot.”

Yamileth Rodriguez arrived at the club 15 minutes later, but her daughter was already on her way to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. Rodriguez said she followed her there and was not allowed to see Morales while she was being treated. At 5:25 a.m., doctors told her she had died.

Using surveillance video and witness testimony, investigators identified Hull as the shooter within hours. During a 40-minute interview at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Hull told investigators he was in the nightclub parking lot when the shots rang out, but denied shooting anyone.

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Hull said he went to a family member’s home in Lake Worth Beach after leaving the nightclub. Officers obtained search warrants for Hull’s home and that of his relatives and found a garbage bag containing the clothes Hull had worn to the club, as well as the 9 mm semi-automatic pistol he used to kill Morales and wound three others.

Hull, then 29 and a father of his own, was arrested in Georgia after Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to his whereabouts.

Morales was born in Miami but graduated from Lake Worth High School. She worked as a supervisor for a cleaning company and was a team mom in the youth baseball program at Phipps Park in West Palm Beach. A GoFundMe account in her name has raised more than $15,000. The money went toward her funeral and savings accounts for her two sons.

Caribe Group Enterprise, operator of the now-closed La Isla nightclub, reached a confidential settlement with her family in January regarding the wrongful death.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist who covers public safety and criminal justice for the Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected].

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