Homicide Watch Trenton

After a one-day reprieve, the city’s criminal element was at it again with the gun violence. From last Friday through Tuesday, nine people were shot, which includes Sidique Richardson (Howlen), who was killed Friday night on Jersey Street and Home Avenue. On Thursday, around 7:00 p.m. on Bryn Mawr Avenue near Volk Street, a man was shot dead. According to police, the victim was sitting in the car when the suspect fired into the vehicle. The victim got out of the vehicle, ran to the backyard of a residence and collapsed.
Scanner reports from around 7:40 p.m. said that the victim was found unresponsive by TEMS and went into cardiac arrest and died as he was being transported to the Capital Health Regional Medical Center.
The victim who was not yet identified by police is the city’s eighth homicide victim this year.
Anyone with information about the homicide can call the Trenton Police confidential tipline at (609) 989-3663 or the Crimestoppers tipline at (609) 278-8477.
Those wishing to text a tip regarding the homicide can send a message labeled TCSTIPS to Trenton Crime Stoppers at 274637.
Stick with the Trentonian for further updates.

TRENTON — City police are still investigating the shooting that left one man dead Friday night.
Sidiq Howlen was gunned down in front of the Community Mini Market in the 100 block of Home Avenue. Police sources told The Trentonian, the shots that killed the 22-year-old were fired from a silver or possibly gray station wagon. According to the source there were several men who returned fire on the car that fled the area. The second man who was struck in the leg was a bystander.
A friend of the victim, who declined to give his name, said on Friday night that the 22-year-old was a family man and a good guy. The scene Friday night was intense as many residents gathered on their front steps to watch the investigation, some expressed anger that police had not removed Howlen’s body from the scene while others shook their heads and tried to deal with the situation as best they could.
It’s unclear as to what the motive was in the shooting and the incident remains under investigation.
On Saturday a makeshift memorial was hung next to the Mini Market in front of where Howlen was killed. The white sheet was covered in messages to the slain father by many paying their respects.

Residents in the area declined to comment on the death of Richardson. Calls placed to Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. regarding the homicide were not immediately returned.
Howlen’s death marks the city’s seventh homicide since the beginning of the year.
Police ask that anyone with information regarding the homicide please call please call the Trenton Police confidential tipline at (609) 989-3663 or the Crimestoppers tipline at (609) 278-8477.
Those wishing to text a tip regarding the homicide can send a message labeled TCSTIPS to Trenton Crime Stoppers at 274637.

TRENTON – The jury in the Ivelis Turell murder case could not reach a verdict again Monday, despite more than 18 hours of deliberation starting last Wednesday.

In a note to Mercer County Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez just after noon, the jury said it has deliberated a “significant’’ amount of hours and hadn’t been able make a decision.
The judge sent them to lunch with orders to return at 2 p.m. to try again to come to a verdict. By 4:15 p.m., they hadn’t and were sent home with orders to return Tuesday morning at 9.
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Trenton - Juan Colon, 44, was indicted on criminal attempted murder charges last Wednesday for shooting at Orlando Sanchez two weeks before he was murdered.
On Aug. 25, 2012, Colon allegedly went to Sanchez’ Elm Street home, where his girlfriend was sleeping at the time. Sanchez, 28, answered the door and Colon reportedly told him to wake his girlfriend up. When the woman would not wake up, Colon became angry and kicked in the door and began shooting at Sanchez as he fled upstairs. Sanchez was not hit in the shooting.
A few weeks later on Sept. 9, Sanchez was gunned down in an alley off of Chestnut Street. According to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, the case remains open and no one has been charged in connection with his death. Colon, who was arrested on Sept. 17 in Florida on warrants for shooting at Sanchez, is considered a person of interest in the case.
Anyone with information regarding Sanchez’ homicide can call the Trenton Police confidential tipline at (609) 989-3663 or the Crimestoppers tipline at (609) 278-8477.
Those wishing to text a tip regarding Sanchez’ homicide can send a message labeled TCSTIPS to Trenton Crime Stoppers at 274637.

TRENTON – A judge gave a murder suspect a chance at making bail this morning by dropping the full-cash requirement on his $500,000 bail.

Judge Mark Fleming of the Mercer County Superior Court cleared the way for Kevin Boone to convince a bail bondsman to put up the money to win his release until trial.
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TRENTON — A jury of nine women and three men is deliberating the fate of Ivelis Turell, on trial for the shooting murder of the father of her two sons on April 30, 2007.

After four alternate jurors — all men — were culled out, the remaining 12 started deliberations shortly after 3 p.m., following instructions from Mercer County Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez.
The jurors did not reach an immediate verdict and were sent home in time for dinner.
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TRENTON — The defense rested Tuesday morning after getting a detective to admit no fingerprints could be lifted from the gun that killed Michael Whitaker because the weapon has been cleaned with hydrogen peroxide.
But don’t look at Ivelis Turell, on trial for Whitaker’s murder, as the cleaner of the 9mm Ruger.
State police Detective Mike McCormick told defense lawyer Steve Slaven the ballistics squad apparently wiped down the weapon before he could dust it for prints.
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Trenton police charged a 17-year-old male juvenile on March 2 for the murder of Louis Bryan Alvarez, 25, of Trenton.
The teen, who police did not identify because he was a juvenile, had been in custody on robbery charges when police charged him with murder.
According to police on Feb. 26, the suspect was banging on the door of a home on the 200 block of Fulton Street when Alvarez answered the door. Alvarez and the suspect exchanged words before Alvarez shut the door on the suspect. As Alvarez retreated in the home, the teen allegedly fired a single shot through the window, striking Alvarez in the torso. Police found him unresponsive at the home and was declared dead at the Capital Health Regional Medical Center.

TRENTON — Robert Bartley and Raheem Currie, charged in the murder of 18-year-old James Austin, had their bails reduced by Judge Robert Billmeier on Thursday.

Bartley, who is charged with felony murder, murder, possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, saw his bail dropped from $1 million to $750,000.
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TRENTON — A tearful Ivelis Turell took the stand yesterday to defend herself against murder charges by telling of life with two little boys and a boyfriend fascinated by a gun that ended up killing him.

“I was like, ‘Mike, I love you,’ ” she testified in a cracking voice to telling victim Mike Whitaker after she gunned him down with the 9mm Ruger in the bedroom of their Ferry Street home the night of March 30, 2007.

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