A judge Thursday morning rejected a request from Raheem Currie’s defense attorney for a mistrial based on testimony from a Trenton Police officer who noted that the victim, James Austin, was the son of a retired police officer.
Currie is being tried for conspiring with his cousin, Robert Bartley, to murder Austin, the slain 18-year-old son of retired city cop Luddie Austin, in February
Raheem Currie
2013.
“A mistrial should only be granted to prevent an obvious failure of justice,” Judge Pedro Jimenez said. “There has to be clear showing of actual harm.”
The issue revolved around the testimony of Drew Astbury, a K-9 officer from Trenton Police.
Read more
As she sat in the back seat of a Honda Civic parked outside the home of a retired city cop’s son in February 2013, Endia Kaver admitted to police that she was nervous.
Her boyfriend, Raheem Currie, and James Austin, had been involved in a fight earlier that day. And now they had returned with Currie’s cousin, Robert Bartley, to settle the score.
Kaver, Currie’s longtime girlfriend, remembered thinking to herself, as Bartley stepped out of Honda Civic and informed the group he planned to spray up Austin’s East State Street home, “Lord, don’t let this get out of hand.”
Raheem Currie
Testifying Wednesday at Currie’s murder conspiracy trial, Kaver told jurors she had no idea what Bartley meant about spraying up the home of Austin, the slain 18-year-old son of retired Trenton cop Luddie Austin.
“I don’t know what he meant necessarily at the time,” said Kaver, a short, African American woman with long, braided hair that had streaks of red. “I didn’t know [Bartley] had a gun.”Read more
The city man who shot a Trenton cop’s son to death in 2013 tried to get a feel for what police knew about his involvement in the crime when he was first interrogated, a retired police detective testified Wednesday.
But by the end of the interrogation, retired Trenton Police detective Gary Britton said, the suspect, Robert Bartley, had confessed to killing James Austin, the son of well-known retired Trenton police officer Luddie Austin.
Robert Bartley
“He was not sure what we were able to find out about what happened,” at the Feb. 26, 2013 murder, said Britton, who spent 24 years with Trenton Police until his retirement. “He seemed to be curious about a fight that took place a day before with his cousin. By the end of that, he was completely broken down, sobbing, apologetic, angry that he made the decision that he made.”Read more
A dispute between a slain Trenton cop’s son and a city man began over shattered car windows.
By the end of it, lives had been shattered.
Raheem Currie
James Austin, 18, was shot once in the chest in his East State Street home on the afternoon of Feb. 26, 2013, as his girlfriend looked on helplessly while clutching one of Austin’s twin daughters, prosecutors said in opening statements Tuesday.
Robert Bartley admitted fatally shooting Austin and accepted a plea that calls for him to serve 25 years in prison. He must also testify at the trial of his cousin, Raheem Currie, who faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted of conspiracy.
Currie has maintained his innocence, and opposing attorneys delivered sharply different accounts of what happened that day.Read more
Danuweli Keller didn’t call Saul.
He called Mark “Hung Jury” Fury – a man who has represented convicted killer and former Latin Kings leader Jose “Boom Bat” Negrete as well as Isiah Greene, who is accused of gunning down high-ranking Bloods leader Quaadir “Ace” Gurley.
Sporting Kanye West-like aviator shades inside the building, Fury walked through the courthouse to an interview room to speak with Keller prior to a pretrial hearing Tuesday ahead of the September murder trial.
Fury was appointed by the public defender’s office to represent the suspected gunman following a series of lawyer blunders – including the suspension of former attorney Richie Roberts – that left Keller attorney-less.
A second attorney last month withdrew from the case after he told a judge he could no longer represent Keller because his family reneged on fully paying a retainer fee.Read more
The parents of murder victim James Austin share the same birthday – July 13.
They will be in a courtroom that day, when a city man goes on trial for his role in the February 2013 death of their 18-year-old son.
“It’s like an early birthday present,” said Luddie Austin, James’ father and a retired Trenton cop.
Luddie, who turns 47 on Wednesday, and Austin’s mother, Yvonne, have waited more than three years for Raheem Currie to have his day in court.
Raheem Currie
Jury selection begins Tuesday, after Currie rejected prosecutors’ final plea offer of 10 years for acting as an accomplice to Robert Bartley.
Bartley admitted fatally shooting James Austin following a dispute between Currie and Austin. It escalated after the men smashed each other’s windshields, prosecutors said.Read more
Alton Jones, the half-brother of the notorious Skillman twins, admitted fatally shooting two teenagers three days apart in accepting a plea that calls for him to spend 38 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Jones must serve 19 years each for the deaths of Rayshawn Ransom and Tierra Green, for a total of 38 years, Assistant Prosecutor Stephanie Katz said.
Ransom was gunned down during a deadly, gang-related shootout that led to convictions of two other Trenton men. Green was shot and killed June 15.
Alton Jones
In pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated manslaughter, Jones had a stunning change of heart after he had rejected a previous offer of 40 years.
Andrew Duclair, Jones’ attorney, did not return a phone call Monday afternoon requesting comment about the deal.Read more
Carlos Leiva-Oviedo
The public helped identify a suspect wanted for murder, prosecutors announced Friday.
A 15-year-old from Newark was arrested Thursday night for the stabbing death of 27-year-old Carlos Leiva-Oviedo last month.
The last two weeks, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office released a still image and video of two men wanted in connection with the murder. Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said Friday in a statement that the duo was identified by the public.
“This is a case that would not have been solved without all of the pieces: methodical, perseverant police work, help from the media, and the public doing their part by contacting the authorities with information,” Onofri said. “When we work together, justice is served.” Read more
TRENTON >> Following the release of a photograph last week, authorities are still searching for two men they say are connected to the murder of a Honduran man who was stabbed to death last month.
Authorities are seeking two men connected to a stabbing death in Trenton.
In another attempt to identify the men, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office released an 8-second video Friday of two men walking near the area where 27-year-old Carlos Leiva-Oviedo was stabbed to death in the early-morning hours of June 14. Last week, prosecutors released a grainy still photo of the men.Read more
The two men who beat Julio Cesar Cruz Cruz to death in February 2014 during a robbery wore a green jacket and a black jacket, witnesses told police.
A detective said the witnesses were partially right.
The clothing was a critical point of contention at a pretrial hearing Wednesday for Michael Holman, one of the men who was arrested and charged with Cruz’s murder.
Dante Martin is also charged for his role in the fatal beating. The men have rejected plea offers from prosecutors and may go to trial.
Michael Holman
Holman’s attorney, Jack Furlong, has challenged on several constitutional grounds whether a statement his client gave police is admissible at trial.
Prosecutors said Holman’s own words, admitting he was in the area of the murder, are incriminating and they want jurors to hear that at trial.
A judge listened to testimony most of Wednesday but has not ruled on the matter and will issue a written decision in the future.Read more
