An attorney for former Newark gang member Shaheed Brown, who is on trial for murder, has accused the brother of murder victim Enrico Smalley Jr. of disparaging and threatening him during an exchange in the restroom of the courthouse.
Defendent Shaheed Brown listens to trial testimony. (Gregg Slaboda - Trentonian)
The allegations spilled into the courtroom Wednesday when defense attorney Edward Heyburn asked Judge Andrew Smithson for Smalley’s relative to be barred from the courthouse for his safety after he allegedly called him a “piece of sh—.”
Following the brief on-record discussion in the courtroom, Heyburn also alleged to The Trentonian that Smalley’s brother, Billy Blanks, made faces toward his client throughout trial and was warned not to do so by a sheriff’s officer.
On Wednesday, Judge Smithson refused to go along with Heyburn’s request to bar Smalley’s relative, and the man was instructed to stay away from the defense attorney.Read more
Defendent Shaheed Brown listens to trial testimony. (Gregg Slaboda - Trentonian)
Conspiracy.
It was the word juror Mark Nalbone heard come out of the mouth of defense attorney Edward Heyburn on Tuesday as he walked through the the halls outside of Judge Andrew Smithson’s courtroom, where former Newark gang member Shaheed Brown is on trial for the July 2014 murder of Enrico Smalley Jr. outside crime-ridden La Guira Bar.
“I heard one word – it was very loud and distinct – and the word was ‘conspiracy,’” Nalbone said, according to a recording obtained by The Trentonian. “All the other words went back to normal mumbling where I could not really make it out. Not that I wanted to. I try to stay as far away as I can.”
There has been no evidence presented of a conspiracy in Brown’s murder trial. However, it is clear from a recording obtained by The Trentonian that the juror believed Heyburn plotted his own conspiracy to expose him to the word.
“Your perception was that it was intentional?” Heyburn asked the juror.
“To be honest, that’s what I thought,” Nalbone said. “I thought you took a glimpse and saw me coming and then, like I said, I heard this mumbling, and I didn’t hear anything so I made sure I walked away. But as I was getting closer, the one word that was just a lot louder than the normal conversation was the word ‘conspiracy’ and then you proceeded to talk at a lower volume.”
Judge Smithson expelled members of the public from his courtroom over the objections of a Trentonian reporter in order to have a private exchange with Nalbone and opposing attorneys in the murder trial. He also told attorneys not to speak with news reporters about the issue. Read more
Two of four Liberian men who were expected to be tried together next year in the execution-style slaying of a U.S. Army veteran could be tried separately depending on how a judge rules.
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A Trenton man charged with two murders has been offered a plea deal that would put him behind bars for nearly three decades for one of the murders.
Markquice Thomas
Markquice “Tank” Thomas is charged with the murders of 44-year-old Joseph “Power God” Gaines, a former drug dealer turned city activist, as well as the murder of 22-year-old Jared Littlejohn.
Littlejohn, of Ewing, was kidnapped and killed in September 2012 during a botched robbery, prosecutors have said. Two years later, in March 2014, Thomas killed Gaines over an outstanding drug debt, prosecutors have said.
Littlejohn’s case, which has not been indicted, remained cold until witnesses stepped forward, prosecutors said. Thomas was served with the murder charge in Littlejohn’s death while he was jailed in Gaines’ slaying.Read more
Assistant Prosecutor Brian McCauley promised at the outset of a former Newark gang member’s murder trial he would put the puzzle pieces together for jurors. He literally did, in his slideshow.
Shaheed Brown
The red puzzle pieces, containing bits of evidence or crucial statements from witnesses who testified in the trial, pointed to Shaheed Brown’s guilt in the slaying of Enrico Smalley Jr. outside of crime-ridden La Guira Bar in the early-morning hours of July 12, 2014, McCauley said.
Defense attorney Edward Heyburn countered there was “no proof” Brown killed Smalley.
When the puzzle pieces were pulled away, they revealed the police booking photo of Brown, his head shaven, staring back at the camera.
The prosecutor said there was one reason Brown was at the bar when Smalley was murdered, and it wasn’t to drink.Read more
The only woman standing between Newark gang member Shaheed Brown and life sentence has not been allowed to testify, pretty much dismantling Brown’s third-party guilt defense and possibly sealing his fate.
Prosecutors say this surveillance photo shows Shaheed Brown (left) and Enrico Smalley Jr. minutes before Smalley was gunned down outside of La Guira Bar on July 12, 2014.
Defense attorney Edward Heyburn said he was given a deadline of Thursday to track down the witness, Kayemma Strong. He says he tried “day and night” to get in touch with her despite only being provided her contact information late Wednesday.
He needed to serve her with a subpoena and have her in by 11 a.m. the next morning.
As a result, testimony in Brown’s murder trial was cancelled. Jurors were sent home and the trial is set to resume Monday. Judge Andrew Smithson has ruled that even if Heyburn can locate Strong between now and then, he is not allowed to call her to the witness stand.Read more
Retired Trenton Police officer Luddie Austin says he no longer has confidence in the criminal justice system in Mercer County after he and his family have waited for more than two years for the man he says orchestrated his son’s murder to be held accountable.
Luddie Austin on A&E’s “Manhunter: Fugitive Task Force”
“I lost faith in the judicial branch,” Austin told The Trentonian outside a courtroom Thursday. “I still have faith in the police. The courts, I don’t have no faith in because you have a judge who refuses to set a bail in the appropriate guidelines.”
Austin spoke with undisguised passion following the latest court appearance for Raheem Currie, one of two men charged with murder in the shooting death of his son, 18-year-old James Austin.
He criticized Judge Robert Billmeier for adjourning the matter because he was unsure whether Currie’s attorney, Jack Furlong, had been made aware of the scheduled appearance, which was pushed back because the judge had presided over Isiah Greene’s murder trial.Read more
A city man has pleaded not guilty to killing a 39-year-old Trenton man outside of a crime-ridden bar last year.
Anthony Concepcion
Gang member Anthony L. Concepcion was out on bail on a gun charge when he allegedly fatally shot Patrick Walker outside of La Guira Bar on Dec, 13, 2014, one of two murders at the establishment in a five-month span.
Twenty-year-old Enrico Smalley Jr., of Ewing, was killed outside the same bar in July 2014. Suspected killer Shaheed Brown is on trial in the Smalley slaying.
The murders outside the bar drew the attention of the Alcoholic Beverage Control division of the Attorney General’s Office, which inquired into La Guira Bar’s practices but did not shut the bar down despite concerns from the owner his business would be shuttered.Read more
Everyone in the courtroom kept waiting for the haymaker that never came as defense attorney Edward Heyburn cross examined the lead detective in Enrico Smalley Jr.’s murder in July 2014.
Prosecutors say this surveillance photo shows Shaheed Brown (left) and Enrico Smalley Jr. minutes before Smalley was gunned down outside of La Guira Bar on July 12, 2014.
If anything was true about Heyburn leading up to trial, it was that he pulled no punches plotting out his pretrial strategy for how he planned to defend suspected killer Shaheed Brown against a murder rap.
He was going to blame another man, Alvie “King” Vereen, for killing Smalley on orders of a dead man, Rodney Sutphin. His accusations frayed the nerve of Sutphin’s grandmother, who blasted the defense attorney in an interview with The Trentonian.Read more
Phillip Hedgepath is “street smart” so he was suspicious when he saw three men with black gloves lurking outside of the crime-ridden bar where Enrico Smalley Jr. was fatally shot last year. He had wised up after getting shot himself.
Prosecutors say this surveillance photo shows Shaheed Brown (left) and Enrico Smalley Jr. minutes before Smalley was gunned down outside of La Guira Bar on July 12, 2014.
“I’m gonna remember that to a T,” said Hedgepath, who stood on the side of La Guira Bar, near Poplar Street, in the early-morning hours of July 12, 2014. “You see someone with black gloves, you immediately know something ain’t right, something about to go down.”
Hedgepath testified Monday suspected killer Shaheed Brown, known as “Sha,” was one of the men with a black glove in his pocket shortly before Smalley was gunned down. He could not identify the two other men with black gloves, which he believed people used to avoid leaving fingerprints.
While he was unsettled by the black gloves, Hedgepath did not call 911 to alert police.Read more
