A cab driver told cops he beat a 42-year-old passenger to death in the Bronx because he wouldn't pay the fare after a two-block ride — and because the passenger “cursed my mother,” court documents show.  Cabbie Luis Marmolejos, 54, told investigators he picked up Valerio Luna at 175th St. and Jerome Ave. in Morris Heights at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 16. He drove about two blocks before Luna said he wanted to get out of the white Toyota Camry.  “I told him he had to pay,” Marmolejos told investigators. “He said 'No' and cursed my mother. He hit me first. I defended myself.”  But surveillance video shows that Marmolejos “struck Luna about the face and head with a closed first multiple times” after both men got out of the car, according to the criminal complaint against him.  At one point, Luna places his hands in a defensive pose and strikes back at the 5-foot-9, 200-pound Marmolejos.  The video shows the driver struck Luna one final time with a closed fist to the face before Luna fell backwards to the ground, court papers say.  Marmolejos got back into his cab and drove away “while Luna lay in the middle of the street, not moving.”  Marmolejos, a native of the Dominican Republic, turned himself in the next day.  NYC TAXI DRIVER FINED $25K FOR REFUSING RIDE TO BLACK FAMILY AND PICKING UP WHITE WOMEN INSTEAD  Luna suffered a fractured skull and a brain injury from the savage beating, the document shows.  Police said he died at St. Barnabas Hospital Monday — one week after the shocking attack.  “A couple of workers went to see him at the hospital,” said Mark Ujszaszi, a manager at Midtown’s Bottega del Vino on E. 59th St. where Luna worked as a barback. “We were concerned. Nobody really knew his family, we couldn't find them. We called the Mexican consulate (looking for them).”  Ujszaszi said that Luna worked the day of the attack and was probably on his way home to the Bronx when the fatal fight erupted.  “He was very friendly, he had a lot of friends here,” Ujszaszi. “He was very friendly with customers, he liked talking to them.”  Marmolejos had been suspended twice from the Taxi and Limousine Commission for a total of 25 days for failure to submit a drug test, but had a clean record besides those infractions since getting his hack license in 2008, according to a TLC spokesman. He was suspended the day after the arrest.  He’s charged with misdemeanor assault and is being held on Rikers Island on $10,000 bail. He has no prior arrests, cops said.  The city medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine how exactly Luna died.  Charges against Marmolejos could be upgraded.  “It's surprising to me that someone at that age hit somebody,” a neighbor of Marmolejos, who declined to give his name, said. “He was probably a little unstable.”  With Dan Rivoli, Thomas Tracy
A man who was pummeled by his taxi driver after trying to evade paying the fare has died, police said Wednesday.