Former Milton resident pleads guilty to drug dealing
A former Milton resident who was once a suspect in a murder case will serve 30 months in jail on drugs and weapons charges unrelated to the earlier case.
Carlos Feliciano-Conception, 25, of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty Dec. 5 to drug dealing, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and disregarding a police signal in Delaware Superior Court in Georgetown. Feliciano-Conception will serve 30 months in prison followed by 18 months of probation.
Feliciano-Conception was facing a minimum of two years in prison with a maximum of 35.
On March 9, at 11:20 a.m., police say officers responded to a residence on Carlisle Lane in Milford for an unrelated investigation. As police were ready to leave the area, a light blue 2005 Acura MDX pulled up. Police said a strong odor of marijuana was detected and officers saw a joint in plain view. When the occupants of the car were asked to get out of the vehicle, Feliciano-Conception, the driver, fled the scene. The car was found abandoned and unlocked on McColley Street in Milford, where officers found 507 bags of heroin, five bags of marijuana, two .40-caliber magazines and a .22-caliber round.
On March 15, Delaware police and U.S. marshals found Feliciano-Conception at a residence on Causey Avenue in downtown Milford. Feliciano-Conception left the house in a gold Chrysler 300 and was shortly arrested without incident. He was found in possession of five bags of heroin, $500 in drug sales, a Glock .40 handgun, three extended clip magazines and a ledger.
Appearing before Judge Craig Karsnitz, flanked by attorney Stephen Welsh, Feliciano-Conception appeared to hesitate before answering yes when asked by Karsnitz if he was guilty of the crimes he was pleading guilty to. Karsnitz noted his hesitation but Feliciano-Conception admitted his guilt.
Of his jail time, Feliciano-Conception will get credit for 114 days already served.
In November 2014, Feliciano-Conception was the suspect in a Milton shooting that killed Rogelio “Chico” Martinez-Hernandez, 20, and left his brother, Marlon Martinez-Hernandez, then 14, paralyzed. Feliciano-Conception was arrested after police said Marlon told them the shooter’s voice sounded like a man known as “Macho,” a nickname for Feliciano-Conception. During a January 2015 preliminary hearing, it was revealed that Feliciano-Conception’s brother, Juan, told police Feliciano-Conception had shot the Martinez-Hernandez brothers and hid the weapon. However, there was no audio or visual evidence of the shooting, police reports were filed a year after the shooting and Welsh, who represented Feliciano-Conception in the murder case, questioned the admissibility of the the responding officer’s testimony because it was based on unreliable hearsay with no supporting evidence.
After nearly two years of legal proceedings, charges against Feliciano-Conception were dropped for lack of evidence. No additional suspects in the shooting have been named.
