Homicide Watch Trenton

Authorities are searching for two men they say are connected to the murder of a Honduran man who was stabbed to death this month.

Authorities are seeking two men connected to a stabbing death in Trenton.

The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office released a grainy photo Wednesday 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.

Police responded to the intersection of Hudson and Genesee streets and found Leiva-Oviedo sprawled out on the in the street near his car, which was parked on Hudson. He suffered multiple stab wounds and was taken by ambulance to a hospital where he died four hours later.Read more

Akee Harris

A city man has been indicted in connection with the fatal stabbing of 22-year-old Edwin Saddler.

Akee Harris, 27, was indicted on murder and related weapons charges in connection with Saddler’s death, which happened on June 23, 2015, in the first block of Ellsworth Avenue.

Prosecutors believe Harris and Saddler were involved in a physical altercation, during which Harris stabbed Saddler numerous times. Prosecutors say Harris was treated at a hospital in Hopewell after suffering a laceration to his hand during the altercation with Saddler. Read more

A Jamaican man suspected of gunning a 47-year-old city man in 2013 has rejected prosecutors’ plea offers and is expected to be tried later this year.

Judge Pedro Jimenez set Robert Byers’ murder trial down for Oct. 3 of this year. He is accused of fatally shooting construction worker and DJ Devon Hewitt in 2013, then fleeing to Florida where he was arrested by U.S. Marshals.

Byers, of Mott Street, was nabbed in Miami and brought back to New Jersey, where he was indicted on first-degree murder and weapons charges.Read more

Carlos Leiva-Oviedo and his girlfriend Lesvia Liliana Caballero (submitted photo)

A man from Honduras who has lived in the capital city for about two years was stabbed to death Tuesday morning, becoming the city’s eleventh homicide victim this year.

Carlos Leiva-Oviedo, 27, was stabbed around 3 a.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Hudson and Genesee streets. When police arrived, they found him lying in the street near his car, which was parked on Hudson, suffering from several stab wounds.

Carlos was rushed to the hospital where he died about four hours later.

According to his friends, Carlos moved to Trenton about two years ago to earn money for his family, most of whom still live in Honduras. He was employed as a roofer and also found work repairing and installing aluminum siding. Read more

Two men suspected of killing 23-year-old Daquan Dowling during a 2012 drive-by shooting that led to the closure of Route 29 are expected to go on trial later this year.

William Mitchell and Andre Romero are being tried together for the murder of Dowling, who was killed instantly after he was struck in the head by a bullet fired by the alleged shooters.

Two other men who were charged in the highway slaying, Anthony Marks and Jamar Square, accepted plea bargains to lesser charges.Read more

Police are investigating a murder at Prospect Village in Trenton Saturday afternoon. (Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — The Trentonian)

A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed Saturday afternoon at Prospect Village, police said.

Police responded to a report of a shooting in progress about 3:45 p.m. Saturday and located the teenager who had been struck at least once by gunfire, according to Trenton Police Lt. Stephen Varn. Read more

Better Call Saul.

The suspected gunman in the oldest Mercer County has attorney problems, as yet another one ducked out of his homicide case.

Danuweli Keller was dealt another blow Friday, when his new attorney, Thomas Verrastro, asked a judge to be let out of the case, which is scheduled for trial in September.

Judge Robert Billmeier reluctantly allowed Verrastro to withdraw.

“I consider this the eve of trial,” Billmeier said, even though the trial is about three months out.

He indicated he would not put the trial on hold.Read more

Elaine Batie clutched her son’s former co-worker outside a Mercer County criminal courtroom.

They hugged for what seemed like minutes, swaying back and forth in unison.

Carl Batie

“It’s over,” the woman told Elaine.

Carl Batie, a former Mercer County corrections officer with an infectious personality and generous spirit, was killed in a hail of bullets Nov. 11, 2012 at the Baldassari Regency banquet hall, in what authorities believed  was a chilling and callous gang-related shooting that claimed an unintended victim.

Prosecutors stressed to jurors over two trials they may never know “the why” of the killing, but they could know “the who.”

It took 1,307 days since Batie’s death, two trials and two different juries. But two city men were finally found guilty Thursday of killing the off-duty Mercer County corrections officer in 2012, nearly four months after their first trial ended in a hung jury. Read more

All day a Mercer County inmate will be dreaming about his lost sneaker.

Prosecutors said at a bail hearing Thursday for suspected killer Seth Bowers, 21, that a left-footed Adidas sneaker ties him to the murder of Zaire Gibbs, a 25-year-old man who was gunned down last week in the city streets.

Authorities found the shoe on the first block of Washington Street on June 1 and matched it to a right-footed Adidas sneaker discovered at Bowers’ Anderson Street home, not far from the scene of the deadly dustup.

Seth Z. Bowers

Bowers turned himself into Trenton Police headquarters on unrelated warrants a day after the shooting. He was charged a day later with Gibbs’ murder. Read more

Carl Batie and his brother, Karshawn, were leaving the Baldassari Regency banquet hall in the early-morning hours of Nov. 11, 2012.

They stepped out on the deck to get some fresh air, when Carl noticed a familiar face standing on a wooden stoop at the edge of the balcony, gazing over the crowd.

It was Alexis Feliciano, a convicted felon who was turning his life around. Feliciano landed a job as a bouncer at the banquet hall.

Maurice Skillman

Batie, the affable 27-year-old corrections officer from Mercer County, walked over to Feliciano.

They played basketball together in the past and encountered each other at the Mercer County Correction Center in Hopewell, where Feliciano spent time as an inmate.

They chatted about Carl’s dog-breeding business for a few minutes.

Then gunshots rang out, shattering a celebration that brought out more than 200 people to the banquet hall to rejoice over the re-election of President Barack Obama.

Only after the gunshots stopped, and the people ran from the balcony toward the front exit, did the carnage become clear.

“One brother murdered,” Assistant Prosecutor James Scott said. “Another brother affected for the rest of his life.”Read more