Chester Noralez Wins Acquittal after Accusers’ Deaths

Chester Noralez

Thirty-six year old Chester Noralez, accused in the brutal beating and home invasion against senior citizen Patrick Grant in 2015, was acquitted of the charge today before Chief Magistrate Sharon Frazer. Both Grant and his sister, Gilda Diaz, were to have testified in the trial but both are now deceased. Grant’s twenty-one inch Toshiba television set was stolen between Boxing Day and December twenty-seventh, 2015, and the then-ninety-three year old was badly beaten at his Fern Lane home. Noralez was charged with burglary and grievous harm but when the case file did not make it to court a few months later, the charges were dropped. Then-Southside commander Chester Williams publicly called for Noralez’s re-arrest and trial proceeded in early 2017 with Grant testifying. He died last September. Diaz was to have testified to purchasing the set for her brother, but she passed earlier this month. Citing insufficient evidence against Noralez to continue the prosecution due to the deaths of Grant and now Diaz, the Chief Magistrate found him not guilty of the charges and he was free to go.