Joeryan Foreman
One of two men charged in connection with the shooting death of Chevin Burgess has until next month to decide whether he will accept prosecutors’ plea offer or head to trial.
Joeryan Foreman, 23, is accused of helped alleged triggerman Calier Samad, 28, dispose of Burgess’ badly burned body which was found January 4, 2014, inside an abandoned vehicle engulfed in flames.
Foreman, charged with counts of murder, arson, robbery and weapons offenses, has been offered a plea deal that would require him to spend 25 years in state prison for aggravated manslaughter. He would also receive nine years for aggravated arson, which would run concurrently to the manslaughter charge. Read more
Tomarkus Whitfield
A Trenton man accused of fatally shooting 33-year-old Pinkey Priester appears headed for trial.
Tomarkus Whitfield, 37, has pleaded not guilty and so far rejected prosecutors’ offer to serve 25 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter. He is charged with counts of murder and weapons offenses after authorities said he pumped more than 10 rounds into Prieseter on June 16, 2014, on the 300 block of Centre Street.
Authorities said the men had a longstanding financial dispute. Read more
Charlotte Carman
During a rare appearance in Mercer County Superior Court, the state’s top public defender said a Trenton woman accused of fatally stabbing her former boyfriend in a jealous rage last year had suffered facial fractures after being abused by the victim prior to the stabbing.
At a bail reconsideration hearing Monday, Joseph Krakora revealed Charlotte Carman will claim she acted in self-defense when she stabbed Paris France Way to death in May 2015 after he struck her in the face with a 2-liter soda bottle.
Charged with murder, felony murder, robbery, criminal mischief and weapons offenses, Carman was extended a plea deal by prosecutors for the first time that would require her to spend 30 years in state prison if she pleads guilty.
Krakora’s self-defense announcement stirred Way’s family members who were in court Monday for a bail reconsideration hearing for Carman. One woman believed to be Way’s mother cursed at the suggestion of self-defense and had to be calmed down by Assistant Prosecutor Stacey Geurds. Read more
Horace Gordon (COURTESY OF SOUTHSIDE REGIONAL JAIL)
A city man was indicted last week in connection with the murder of 29-year-old Harvey Sharp.
Horace Gordon, 36, is charged with murder and related weapons offenses in connection with the June 2015 shooting that gunned down Sharp on the front porch of a Cummings Avenue home.
The shooting happened on Sharp’s birthday, and sources say it was the result of a “petty argument.”
Gordon was arrested in southern Virginia about a week after the shooting. He remains in jail on $1 million bail.
Donte Jones
Supporters for a slain Philadelphia man wept openly in a courtroom Monday when prosecutors offered alleged killer Donte Jones a plea deal that calls for him to serve 33 years in state prison for aggravated manslaughter.
Jones, 24, of Trenton, is charged with fatally shooting 36-year-old Levonza Thompson with a 9mm handgun in the courtyard of the Oakland Park Apartments on the 200 block of Coolidge Avenue on Halloween night 2014.
Police have said Thompson was shot multiple times after he and Jones struggled. He was rushed to a hospital where he died a short time later.
Jones was found at a home on the first block of Laurel Place, hiding under a pile of clothes in a third-floor attic, prosecutors said. Read more
Prosecutors expect to extend another plea offer to Masiyah Howard next month which would package charges of robbery and murder if he accepts it.
Howard is charged with numerous crimes in Chambersburg, including the slaying of 25-year-old
Louis Bryan Alvarez
, who was gunned down at his city home on Feb. 26, 2013.
Assistant Prosecutor James Scott said at a status hearing Monday he plans to send a written offer to Howard’s attorney about two weeks before his next court appearance, on March 21.
Howard, who is jailed on a combined bail of $800,000, was previously offered a plea deal that called for him to serve 30 years in state prison if he admitted to robbery, aggravated manslaughter and weapons offenses.Read more
A judge will decide in the coming months whether the Skillman twins’ brother who is charged with killing two Trenton residents within days of each other will be tried for both murders at a single trial.
Alton Jones
Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez said at a hearing Tuesday he will issue a written opinion in April about whether prosecutors can try Alton Jones jointly for the murders of Rayshawn Ransom and Tierra Green.
In arguing the murders are connected, prosecutors in January asked to try the cases together before a single jury rather than separating them and having different panels decide whether Jones killed the city residents.
Assistant Prosecutor Stephanie Katz has said the murder cases are tied together because Jones used the same handgun to mow down both Ransom and Green on Passaic Street in June 2013. Green was fatally shot in the stomach three days after Ransom was gunned down in a deadly, gang-related shootout that led to convictions of two other Trenton men.Read more
Carl Batie’s family, friends and colleagues dutifully showed up to court day after day over four weeks as prosecutors laid out the case against two men suspected of killing the Mercer County corrections officer in 2012.
Carl Batie
They must do it all over again.
Prosecutors have tried three murder trials in the last four months. Less than a half hour into their fourth day of deliberations in the murder trial of suspected killers Maurice Skillman and Hykeem Tucker, a jury announced it was deadlocked, and a judge was forced to declare a mistrial for the third time.
Judge Andrew Smithson, who presided over two of the three mistrials, polled jurors before releasing them from the courtroom. They said further deliberations would not be fruitful.
The judge lamented jurors’ indecision as an indication the criminal justice system in Mercer County is either “working better than ever or broken.”Read more
“Making a Murderer,” anyone?
The hit Netflix series that spawned a legion of Internet sleuths may be encroaching upon the thinking of a Mercer County jury, which appears divided about whether two men are guilty of killing Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie in 2012.
Carl Batie
Judge Andrew Smithson met privately with one of the jurors Thursday afternoon, ramping up speculation outside the courtroom that there is animosity between two jurors about whether Maurice Skillman and Hykeem Tucker are responsible for killing Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie outside of the Baldassari Regeny banquet hall on Nov. 11, 2012.
The 12-member panel enters its fourth day of deliberations Friday after pouring over the evidence most of Thursday. Smithson sent jurors home about 90 minutes early, fearful they were exhausted after protracted and rancorous discussions throughout the day.Read more
A jury deliberated for a full day Wednesday without reaching a verdict in the murder trial of two men suspected of killing Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie at a banquet hall in 2012.
Carl Batie
The 12-member panel reviewed surveillance footage that captured some of the action outside of the Baldassari Regency banquet hall on Nov. 11, 2012, when Bailey was struck in the head by a bullet while he stood on a packed balcony.
The authorities said at the time they believed the shooting was gang-related and that Batie was an innocent bystander.
The jury began deliberating the fate of suspected killers Maurice Skillman and Hykeem Tucker late Tuesday. They deliberated for less than 45 minutes before breaking for the day and returning to the courthouse Wednesday.Read more
