Jury Convicts N.Y. Teen-Ager of Killing Mission Viejo Man

A New York jury has convicted a 16-year-old boy of murder for gunning down a Mission Viejo college student who was visiting Manhattan during his summer vacation last year.

Matthew Blek, 21, was fatally shot in the face and chest while walking his girlfriend home.

Joseph Lee of Queens, N.Y., was the third teen-ager convicted in Blek’s June 28, 1994, slaying. Lee was tried as an adult and faces a possible sentence of nine years to life in state prison, said Jack Warsawsky, an assistant district attorney in Queens.

Prosecutors alleged that Lee and two other teen-agers attempted to rob Blek, a student at Cal State Fresno, and that Lee shot Blek as he reached for his wallet.

Mary Leigh Blek, the victim’s mother, traveled from Orange County to New York for Lee’s trial and called the July 17 verdict “bittersweet.”

She said the verdict has brought closure to the court proceedings, but said she remains concerned about the availability of assault weapons, such as the one used in her son’s slaying.

Since her son’s death, she has launched an Orange County anti-gun violence coalition.

Blek had been spending his summer vacation in New York “exploring its diversity” and working at a real estate firm, his mother said. Mary Leigh Blek said she plans to prepare a video of her son’s life to show at Lee’s Aug. 7 sentencing hearing.

Lee also was convicted of manslaughter for the shooting death of Gerald Mituniewicz, 43, who was killed about 90 minutes before Blek was shot. The killing occurred during a struggle between Mituniewicz and Lee, the prosecutor said, for which Lee faces an additional term of 3 1/3 to 10 years in prison.