He died over a car.
A man arrested this week for the 2012 Bronx shooting death of a man inside a Cadillac was motivated by a dispute over cash connected to a car repair, police sources said Wednesday.
Michael (Mike Jelly) Canaj was charged for Erion Mecani’s murder Tuesday when he was yanked out of his cell at the Manhattan Detention Complex, where he was being held on an unrelated burglary charge from July, cops said.
Canaj celebrated his 22nd birthday behind bars Wednesday.
Canaj killed Mecani because they could not resolve a dispute they had over money, according to police sources. The suspect had crashed the victim’s car and promised to pay for the repairs, the sources said.
“It was never resolved,” one source said.
Mecani, a resident of upstate Poughquag, was found dead in the passenger seat of a double parked 2006 Cadillac CTS behind a home on Boston Rd. in Allerton on Dec. 31, 2012.
He had been shot once in the head and once in the face.
Two .380-caliber shell casings were found at the scene outside the car by the driver’s side. A cell phone was also found on the hood, officials said.
It was not immediately clear whether the Cadillac was the car that had been damaged or how much money was involved in the dispute over repairs.
Investigators early on focused on Canaj, sources said. They linked him to the scene by comparing his cell phone records to those of the victim and by triangulating the suspect’s cellphone signals to prove he was in the area at the time of the slaying.
Canaj has 11 prior arrests, including for robbery, gang assault, weapons possession and dealing drugs, plus two arrests as a juvenile.
He is expected to be arraigned Thursday, officials said.
