Jailhouse informant becomes star witness in trial for the murder of Tracy Crews

While incarcerated in a county jail awaiting trial for murder, Nigel Joseph Dawson admitted firing the fatal shot that killed Tracy Crews during a botched home invasion on Sept. 12, 2008, a confidential jailhouse informant testified Thursday.

Isaiah Franklin, the state’s star witness and one of four jailhouse informants on the witness list, took the stand and told the jury Dawson confessed he was at Crews home to rob the convicted drug dealer of $40,000.

When Crews recognized his voice, Dawson panicked and shot him in the neck, Franklin said. But before Dawson and William Brown allegedly fled the Whittaker Avenue residence, they heard Crews cry out.

“I can’t believe ‘Youngin’ would do this to me,” Crews said, according to Franklin.

Youngin is Dawson’s nickname on the street, prosecutors have said. Up until this point, the state hadn’t revealed who it believed pulled the trigger of the 9 mm luger that killed Crews.

Dawson’s identity as the shooter is still in question after defense attorneys noted in their cross examination of Franklin that he mixed up the shooters in his notes, at one point fingering Brown.

Either way, Franklin’s testimony – if true – was damaging to the defendants and a big coup for the state, which needs a conviction to put Brown and Dawson away for life.

Franklin, a 22-year-old former Mercer County inmate turned first-time confidential informant, is an unlikely star witness for the prosecution. He was charged with multiple counts of robbery after he and two other men held up several Trenton grocery marts at gunpoint in 2012.

Franklin faced more than a century behind bars if convicted on all the charges. But he struck a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to a single count of aggravated assault and cooperate with the state on a number of cases in exchange for an 18-month prison term, which has not yet been imposed.

Franklin’s deal is contingent on him providing truthful testimony in a handful of cases, including the Crews murder trial. Another jailhouse informant expected to testify in the case got the same “fantastic deal,” defense attorneys said.

Franklin testified meeting Dawson and Brown at the county jail, while they were locked up awaiting trial. Franklin remained at the county jail for about six months after he couldn’t make bail.

During that time, he said, he befriended Dawson, who was cellmates with another inmate Franklin knew from his time living in New York. Franklin said he steadily learned details of Dawson’s involvement in Crews’ murder over the course of a handful of conversations – some taking place in Dawson’s cell or during hourlong recreational time the inmates are allotted each day.

He said he jotted down highlights of Dawson’s confession and had a friend reach out to Trenton Police detectives, indicating he had information about Crews’ murder. They visited him about a month and a half later, he said.

Franklin pleaded guilty to aggravated assault Aug. 20, 2012, the same day he gave a formal statement to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

Dawson’s attorney, Edward Hesketh, attacked Franklin’s credibility on cross examination, pointing to single conviction and saying he could have easily learned the details of his client’s case by peeking at discovery Dawson housed in his cell at the county jail.

“That’s possible, but I didn’t do it,” Franklin shot back.

Hesketh also zeroed in on Franklin’s mix up of the shooters, saying it wasn’t a minor mistake. Franklin admitted portions of his notes were wrong but said the statement he gave prosecutors implicating Dawson was correct.

Brown’s attorney, Steven Lember, said it didn’t make sense that his client would “spill his guts” to someone he had just met and barely knew.

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