Four Liberian men accused of 2011 killing reject plea deals will see trial together
Four Liberian men accused in the execution-style slaying of Liberian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran Dardar Paye rejected final plea offers from prosecutors calling for 30-year sentences for murder and will be tried together next year, a judge said Tuesday.
Phobus Sullivan, 30, Mack Edwards, 29, Danuweli Keller, 27, and Abdutawab Kiazolu, 26, all of Trenton, are charged with murder, felony murder, robbery and weapons offenses in Paye’s death.
Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier scheduled trial, which is expected to last up to six weeks, for Jan. 19, 2016.
Keller is the suspected gunman. The men were charged as accomplices because they were in the vehicle where Paye’s body was discovered.
A fifth man, William Brown, 30, who faces sentencing in April after he was convicted earlier this year in the unrelated murder of convicted drug dealer Tracy Crews, will be tried separately from co-defendants in the Paye case.
Brown’s alleged role in the murder is unclear, but prosecutors asked for a severance based off an incriminating statement he gave to authorities they want a jury to hear. Under evidence rules, that statement cannot be presented at a joint trial, officials said.
Sullivan is serving a 20-year sentence for aggravated manslaughter in the shooting death of 21-year-old Andrew Leonard, who was driving his vehicle on Hanford Place on Dec. 14, 2010 when he was struck by a single bullet. His vehicle ran down the 700 block of Greenwood Avenue, crashing and overturning. An autopsy revealed Leonard died of a gunshot wound to the torso, authorities have said.
Authorities have said Paye, 33, of Maplewood, was fatally shot in the basement of a Monmouth Street home Jan. 16, 2011. His body was placed in garbage bags and stuffed in the trunk of his Buick, which Sullivan later drove while attempting to dispose of the body.
Billmeier warned the defendants they face the possibility of life in prison if they are convicted by a jury, and he said he would not allow them to renege on their decisions to reject plea offers even if one of their codefendants unexpectedly begins cooperating with prosecutors.
Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Gasparian said she expects none of the defendants, who were all offered deals requiring them to testify against each other, will change their minds now that the matter is scheduled for trial.
Keller nodded that he understood when he the judge told him he would be tried in absentia if he refused to be transported from the Camden corrections center where he is housed. Sullivan did not appear in court Tuesday.
Gasparian said police officers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania will testify, presumably about a car chase that began when Trenton police spotted three vehicles, including a Buick belonging to Paye, that matched the description of a vehicle suspected of being used in several home invasions in the area.
The drivers rode along Route 1, fleeing across the border to Pennsylvania where they were later stopped and apprehended. One of the vehicles, believed to be carrying Brown, got away.
Sullivan was arrested after a brief foot pursuit. A search of the trunk turned up Paye’s body, which became part of a suppression motion that was later denied by a judge.
