Homicide Watch Trenton

Isiah Greene

TRENTON >> The jury foreman said everything without saying much at all.

“Further discussion will be futile,” he told Judge Robert Billmeier around noon Friday.

Twenty hours of deliberations could not un-hang the jury, which was up against a self-imposed deadline in suspected killer Isiah Greene’s murder trial. Many jurors were unable to return next week to continue deliberating the case. So Judge Robert Billmeier had little choice but to declare a mistrial.

That meant there would be no verdict – and thusly – no resolution for the family of slain high-ranking Bloods gang member Quaadir “Ace” Gurley, who was shot eight times in the early-morning hours of July 21, 2013 in the courtyard of the Donnelly Homes housing complex. Read more

Without a verdict and up against a deadline for a possible mistrial, the jury in the murder trial of a Trenton man accused of killing a high-ranking Bloods gang members asked Thursday to be released early, apparently deadlocked in their deliberations.

Quaadir Gurley

The panel has been deliberating for about 17 hours over four days on whether it believes Isiah Greene is responsible for the shooting death of Bloods gang member and drug crew leader Quaadir “Ace” Gurley in the early-morning hours of July 21, 2013.

The foreman for the 12-member panel passed a note to Judge Robert Billlmeier around 3:15 p.m. asking that they be allowed to go home an hour early and return to court to continue their deliberations Friday morning.

After consulting with opposing attorneys to see if they objected to the request, the judge dismissed the jurors around 3:30 p.m. Read more

TRENTON >> “Looking for a hung jury? Call Mark Fury” is probably not a catchphrase the defense attorney would use to attract clients.

But it has been Fury’s propensity in gang-related cases in Mercer County that look unwinnable on their face.

It was that way in the infamous first trial of Latin Kings gang leader Jose “Boom Bat” Negrete, who was finally convicted this year after a fourth trial. (Fury was no longer Negrete’s defense attorney at that point.)

Isiah Greene

And it could go that direction again in the murder trial of Isiah Greene, who is accused of gunning down Bloods gang member Quaadir “Ace Gurley” in the courtyard of the Donnelly Homes housing complex in the early-morning hours of July 21, 2013.

Gurley, a notorious gang member and drug crew leader, was hit eight times and later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.

Jurors in the Greene trial deliberated for a second full day Wednesday without arriving at a verdict. They have deliberated close to 12 hours over a span of three days, starting last week.Read more

TRENTON >> The opening phase of the Shaheed Brown murder trial played out as if attorneys were filming a sequel to the popular film “My Cousin Vinny.”

The movie traced the evolution of a bombastically incompetent attorney, Vinnie Gambini, played by actor Joe Pesci. Gambinni’s goal was to get his cousin and a friend off a murder rap in rural Alabama.

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.

Some of the scenes in which the judge chastised Gambini for ineptitude looked like they were filmed in Mercer County. But in Gambini’s place stood Edward Heyburn, the defense attorney for suspected killer Shaheed Brown, who is being tried for the July 12, 2014 murder of Enrico Smalley Jr. outside of a crime-ridden bar in Trenton.

Judge Andrew Smithson waited until he was out of the presence of the jury before ripping into Heyburn on Wednesday. Read more

Isiah Greene

Jurors deliberated for their first full day without arriving at a verdict in the case of a Trenton man accused of killing a high-ranking Bloods gang member in 2013.

Isiah Greene sat with his attorney, Mark Fury, in a Mercer County courtroom as jurors asked for playback of various camera angles captured by surveillance cameras at the Donnelly Homes housing complex in the early-morning hours of July 21, 2013.

That’s when Bloods gang member Quaadir “Ace” Gurley was shot and killed, allegedly by Greene, as he went to open the door of his apartment. Prosecutors believe it was an ambush-style killing but have not supplied a motive as to why Greene would have wanted Gurley dead.

Jurors also asked to re-hear Greene’s testimony from earlier in the trial. They will return to court Wednesday to finish hearing Assistant Prosecutor James Scott’s cross examination of Greene before returning to the deliberation room. Read more

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.

Shaheed Brown was raised on the hardscrabble streets of Newark. In and out of the gang life and in and out of prison, he spent time in solitary confinement in the now-shuttered, high-risk gang unit of Northern State Prison in Newark.

Brown’s parents struggled with drug addiction, leaving him to fend for himself.

He has been in the system since he was a teenager, spending time at a juvenile detention center, according to an article in the Philadelphia Enquirer.

As an adult, he has numerous criminal convictions, including for aggravated assault and aggravated arson, making his attorney, Edward Heyburn, leery of putting him on the stand during his murder trial.

Opening statements are set for Wednesday after opposing attorneys finished selecting a jury Tuesday. Brown is being tried for the July 2014 shooting death of Enrico Smalley Jr., who was gunned down outside of La Guira Bar in Trenton.

For all his flaws, two prisoners’ rights advocates paint a different portrait of Brown, a man they believe is incapable of committing murder.

“He doesn’t lie to me,” said attorney Jean Ross, who along with her husband, housed Brown at their residence when he arrived in the capital city through a coming-home initiative sponsored by Greater Trenton Behavioral. He had been released from state prison in 2010. “He hasn’t told me everything in his life that he has done. But I experience him as a person who is straight with me, who is honest.”

Ross and another prisoners’ rights advocate, Bonnie Kerness, got to know Brown while working with him when he was incarcerated in Newark to help improve conditions for inmates in the gang unit. Read more

Shaheed Brown’s murder trial is expected to be full of head-spinning moments as his attorney plans to put on a third-party guilt defense implicating a dead man in Enrico Smalley Jr.’s murder.

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.

Opening statements in the trial, which could last as many as six weeks, were supposed to be delivered last week. But they were hamstrung by housekeeping matters.

Brown is accused of killing Smalley outside of crimed-ridden La Guira Bar in July 2014.

Openings should begin this week after they were delayed by jury selection and hearings to determine evidence allowed at trial.

Court officials were also consumed with prescreening prospective jurors to weed out ones whose personal schedules would not accommodate such a significant time commitment.

Attorneys need a panel of at least 14 people – including a minimum of two alternates – before forging ahead.

Brown, who has a significant, and violent, criminal history, has been locked up in the county jail for more than a year while awaiting the start of his murder trial. His case could have taken longer to get to this stage if his attorney, Edward Heyburn, had not insisted on it being transferred to another judge so it could be tried sooner. Read more

A convicted felon released from state prison just four months ago was caught by surveillance cameras brutally beating a 72-year-old Trenton man, prosecutors said.
In response, the suspected killer has claimed he was high and drunk and has no recollection of the assault which has left the community reeling.

“He didn’t know what occurred,” said Kathleen Redpath-Perez, the attorney for suspected killer Antonio Sloan.
Redpath-Perez said it was appropriate to hold judgement until all the facts come out before deciding whether Sloan is a “cold-blooded murderer.”

Sloan, known on the streets as “Riot,” is charged with counts of murder, felony murder and robbery after prosecutors said he beat, stomped and robbed well-known city resident James Wells so severely he eventually succumbed to his injuries. He has denied he had any reason to rob Wells.

Antonio Sloan

“If nothing cries out for a heinous crime, this does,” said Skylar Weissman, assistant prosecutor and chief of the homicide unit.

Sloan had his bail maintained at $1 million at his bail appearance before Superior Court Judge Timothy Lydon in Mercer County criminal court.

Sloan was caught on camera during three separate sequences beating Wells around 8 p.m. Sept. 13 in the area of East Hanover and North Broad streets. Read more

TRENTON >> In 1994, Time Magazine faced an onslaught of criticism and accusations of racism when it published a darkened image of O.J. Simpson’s mugshot from the Los Angeles Police Department on its front cover.

The doctored image was accompanied by the headline, “An American Tragedy,”

Quaadir Gurley

describing the circumstances that led to the once-beloved NFL running back being charged with the heinous murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and Ronald Goldman. 

Unlike the Simpson image, the image of a black man on trial for murder in Mercer County did not appear to be doctored. And while it is unlikely to attract the same level of outrage, it has some legal observers drawing parallels between this murder case and the racially divisive “Trial of the Century” involving the famous former football star who is now serving time in Nevada for robbery.

The attorney for suspected killer Isiah Greene, who is on trial for the murder of high-ranking Bloods gang member Quaadir “Ace” Gurley, said the decision by Assistant Prosecutor James Scott to introduce the photograph of his client at trial could turn out to be “A Mercer County Tragedy” for prosecutors.

The photo, which The Trentonian was unable to obtain despite it being shown to jurors in court, depicts Greene asleep in a hospital bed. Greene is light-skinned but he appears darker in the photograph.

Read more

Sharelle Anderson

Sharelle Anderson was allowed to see her deceased sister Thursday morning before being transported to court where a judge reduced her bail, stating that it was excessive considering the facts surrounding the case.

“I think $500,000 bail is excessive; it doesn’t represent what this case is about,” Mercer County Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez said at a bail hearing Thursday. “But this is a very serious offense and she has to be held accountable.”

Anderson, 37, is charged with death by auto, driving while intoxicated and other motor vehicle offenses in connection with the death of her 34-year-old sister, Tina Anderson, who died September 24 after the SUV they occupied flipped several times as it crossed the Southard Street bridge.

Tina’s funeral was scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday, according to her obituary, and prosecutors allowed Sharelle to see her sister hours before the burial. Sharelle appeared for the bail hearing via video and wiped tears from her eyes as attorneys sparred about whether to release her from jail. Read more