Murder rocks Bellevue Avenue in Trenton Wednesday evening

TRENTON — A city man was gunned down Wednesday evening on the first block of Bellevue Ave and pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at a local hospital, police said

Sources say the victim was shot several times and that the Mercer County Homicide Task Force was investigating, but no official confirmation was available about details.

Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed late Wednesday night that 18-year-old Taquan Ellerbe was found in the rear of a building on the first block of Bellevue Ave after police responded to a 9-1-1 call for a male shot and activation of the Shotspotter system.

Ellerbe was transported to Capital Health Fuld for “several gunshot wounds” and was pronounced deceased just before 6 p.m.

Officials said that the man’s family was at the hospital and informed of his death.
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Slain Trenton rapper Jamar Tucker dies by gun violence, body found in Pennsylvania

Jamar Tucker

Jamar Tucker

Jamar Tucker, an up-and-coming rapper from Trenton, was shot and killed on his birthday, The Trentonian has learned.

Tucker, who turned 36 on Friday, is the deceased gunshot victim whose body was found in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, authorities confirmed.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office says Tucker was found dead in the early morning hours of Friday in the 300 block of South Bellevue Avenue. An autopsy conducted by the Bucks County Coroner’s Office determined Tucker died of a gunshot wound, authorities said Saturday in a news release. Read more

Six indicted Trenton double murder of Philadelphia rapper and friend

Top l to r: Lakeisha Hill, Shaquille McNeil, Tashawn Santiago bottom l to r: Cecil Blake, Felicita Gee, Fantasia Gee Photos provided by Mercer County Prosecutors Office

Top l to r: Lakeisha Hill, Shaquille McNeil, Tashawn Santiago
bottom l to r: Cecil Blake, Felicita Gee, Fantasia Gee
Photos provided by Mercer County Prosecutors Office

Six people were indicted for their alleged involvement in the double murder of an aspiring rapper and his friend that also injured a third person, authorities said.

Lakeisha Hill, 29, Shaquille McNeil, 24, Tashawn Santiago, 25, and Cecil Blake, 31, were each hit with charges of murder, attempted murder and weapons offenses.

Felicita Gee, 43, and Fantasia Gee, 24, were indicted on charges of hindering apprehension and giving false information to cops.

Hill and Santiago were indicted on the same charges, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said, as part of a 14-count indictment handed up by a grand jury this week.Read more

Teen shot in the head in Trenton; body found Monday ruled a homicide

A partially decomposed body was found in an area behind this home on Taylor Street.

A partially decomposed body was found in an area behind this home on Taylor Street.

A 19-year-old male is in “extremely critical condition” after being shot in the head early Wednesday morning outside a residential area of the city’s North Ward.

“Brains were leaking out,” two sources said about the ghastly scene. Read more

Alleged killer Leroy Tutt goes to trial in murder of Trenton man, 19

Alleged killer Leroy Tutt has taken his Trenton murder case to trial.

Leroy Tutt

Leroy Tutt

Tutt, 31, of Trenton, sat poised in the courtroom Tuesday as his public defender painted him as an innocent man while the prosecution portrayed him as the shooter responsible for the death of 19-year-old Nabate Kalil Washington, also known as Nebate Anderson.

Tutt is accused of murdering Washington in broad daylight on June 30, 2017, an alleged act of retaliation fueled by a previous beef. Read more

Alleged killer indicted for murder of North Trenton man

The man accused of killing “Big Face” is in big trouble.

Wade Williams

Wade Williams

A Mercer County grand jury has indicted 42-year-old Wade Williams, of Trenton, with the September slaying of Tyrone King, the North Trenton man known as “Big Face.”Read more

Gunman gets 61 years in prison for murdering U.S. Army vet Dardar Paye

Danuweli Keller

Danuweli Keller

The triggerman who shot and killed U.S. Army veteran Dardar Paye execution style and who then ordered the victim’s body to be stuffed in the trunk of a car has been sentenced to six decades of hard time behind bars.

The state argued that Danuweli Keller should have been hit with life imprisonment — which amounts to 75 years of incarceration — for being convicted at trial on first-degree murder charges, but Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier on Thursday sentenced Keller to 61 years in state prison.

“We are gratified that Mr. Keller will be in prison for over half a century,” Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Gasparian told The Trentonian after the sentencing. “It was a cold-blooded execution of the victim. Hopefully this gives the victim’s family some closure.”

Paye, 33, was a U.S. Army veteran, father of two sons and a Liberian immigrant. One of his sisters, Elizabeth Paye, spoke at Thursday’s sentencing and talked about the hurt of losing her brother while also expressing that she forgives Keller for his vicious crimes.Read more

Brunswick Pharmacy killer finally gets sent to prison

Jamar Myers (N.J. Department of Corrections Photo)

Jamar Myers (N.J. Department of Corrections Photo)

The gunman who shot and killed a beloved Trenton pharmacist in April 2011 is now serving hard time in the state prison system.

Jamar Myers, 31, of Lalor Street in Hamilton Township, is doing 30 years behind bars for murdering Brunswick Pharmacy owner Sri Arjun Reddy Dyapa, 54, during the commission of a robbery.

The incident occurred April 29, 2011, when Myers walked into the pharmacy demanding drugs and shot Dyapa once in the chest when the victim refused to comply.Read more

Jury convicts gunman for murdering U.S. Army vet, stuffing body in car trunk

Danuweli Keller (left) and Mack Edwards

Danuweli Keller (left) and Mack Edwards

A 12-member jury has unanimously found Danuweli Keller guilty of a 2011 city murder that left the victim’s body stuffed in the trunk of a car.

Meanwhile, the jury on Thursday could not reach any verdicts against co-defendant Mack Edwards, 31, of Trenton, with the jury deliberating for hours over Edwards’ fate but being hung on all 17 counts at the trial’s conclusion.

Prosecutors say they have a strong case against Edwards and will try him again in hopes of securing a conviction at a future trial. The partial verdict is not exactly what the state was looking for, but the prosecution expressed satisfaction with the jury convicting Keller on the murder charges.Read more

Trenton Police Sgt. Astbury got ‘startled’ upon finding murdered body in trunk

Sgt. Jason Astbury received awards for valor and merit during a May 2010 police ceremony but was shaken eight months later when he discovered the murdered body of Dardar Paye stuffed inside the trunk of a Buick sedan.

Trenton Police Sgt. Jason Astbury

Trenton Police Sgt. Jason Astbury

“I was startled,” Astbury said Thursday during witness testimony. “I’ve never come across anything like that in my career.”

Astbury found the body in the trunk on Jan. 16, 2011, following an interstate police chase that began in Trenton and ended on Route 1 in Falls Township, Pennsylvania.

Paye, 33, was a U.S. Army veteran and Liberian immigrant who had been shot and killed in the basement of a Monmouth Street home in Trenton before getting placed in garbage bags and stuffed in the Buick’s trunk. Astbury said he had checked the body for a pulse, to no avail.Read more