Whether it rains or snows, bullets seem to hail the capital city.
A man was shot and killed Tuesday evening, marking this year’s first homicide.
Police said they received several calls reporting a person shot around 6:40 p.m. in the 200 block of Pearl Street. Law enforcement would not confirm how many times the victim was shot, but police scanners reported a gunshot wound to the chest. The victim was taken to St. Francis Medical Center by ambulance and was later pronounced dead.
Balled up clothing is seen laying amongst ice on a mostly plowed Pearl Street in Trenton on Tuesday Jan. 27, 2014. Scott Ketterer - The Trentonian)
The night was cold and the scene was dreary as police collected evidence from the shooting. A pile of clothes, that presumably belonged to the victim, laid in the middle of a partially plowed street. When a spectator walked by and was told about the shooting, she replied “that’s f***ed up.”
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As Tracy Lamont Crews lay dying on the pavement outside his city residence, his new wife cradled him in her arms and applied pressure to his neck. Blood was all over her hands — literally and metaphorically, defense attorneys say — as it pooled on the concrete steps near Whittaker Liquor.
What Sheena Robinson-Crews did in the hours after her husband was fatally shot Sept. 12, 2008 – just a month after the couple had wed — has defense attorneys claiming she set up her husband to be murdered and then “framed” defendants William Brown and Nigel Joseph Dawson by telling authorities they were involved. Read more
A previously undisclosed police report, dubbed the Terman report by attorneys, could derail the murder trial of two men suspected of fatally shooting Tracy Lamont Crews in 2008.
One defense attorney called the 17-page report, which provides a new window into police’s response to the Sept. 12, 2008 slaying of Crews inside his Whittaker Avenue home, “devastating” to his client, according to a transcript obtained by The Trentonian.
Edward Hesketh, the attorney for Nigel Joseph Dawson, accused Gary Britton, Trenton police’s lead detective in the homicide case, of misconduct – an accusation a judge quickly quashed.
“The more troubling aspect of this is that the lead detective in this case, Detective Britton, had in is possession, preparing for trial, these first 17 [pages of] reports,” Hesketh said
The revelation comes days after Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson dismissed the jury early in the trial of Dawson, 31, who is being tried alongside co-defendant William Brown, 30, for the murder of Crews. Read more
Neal Crews stood outside a county courtroom, decked out in a black “I can’t breathe” shirt, black pants and a black beanie.
It has been more than six years since 23-year-old Tracy Crews was killed during an armed invasion at his Whittaker Avenue residence.
The authorities said they cracked the case, arresting William Brown, 30, and Nigel Joseph Dawson, 31. Both are on trial for the Sept. 12, 2008 murder, a harrowing tale of a best man’s betrayal that ended when Tracy Crews was shot in the neck and bled out in front of a city liquor store.
Tracy Crews, right, with family members. Submitted photo
Neal Crews is still mourning the loss of his brother because every morning he cracks open the newspaper and has to relive the death. Every time he gets to the part about his brother being a convicted drug dealer, he cringes. He knows it’s true, but it robs his brother of his humanity.
“I just don’t want my brother being remembered as a drug dealer, street kid,” he said. “He was much more than that.”
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Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson appears committed to trying the case of two men accused of fatally shooting convicted drug dealer Tracy Lamont Crews at sidebar and in judge’s chambers.
The murder trial of William Brown and Nigel Joseph Dawson was stalled this week by undisclosed evidentiary issues significant enough that Smithson suspended proceedings until Tuesday, when a jury is expected to resume hearing evidence in the Sept. 12, 2008 slaying of Crews inside his Whittaker Avenue home.
This came a day after Smithson dismissed the jury early and later notified jurors that they weren’t required to return to court until Friday.
All that changed Thursday morning, when Smithson summoned Assistant Prosecutor Al Garcia and defense attorneys Steven Lember and Edward Hesketh into his chambers. Read more
Tracey Crews scooped his sleeping daughter out of the back of his double-parked vehicle outside the Whittaker Avenue residence he shared with his new wife.
The couple was just starting off their life together. They had been married for a little more than a month and planned to move to a new apartment. Their world came crashing down late Sept. 12, 2008, when Crews was killed during an armed home invasion.
The murder remained unsolved for nearly three years until investigators cracked the case thanks to a dying declaration and DNA evidence linking one of the defendants on trial for Crews’ murder to a ski mask used in the crime. Read more
A passerby stops to view a makeshift memorial in honor of Rodney Burke on Hamilton Avenue. Nov. 6, 2014 - Penny Ray
Counselors working at Greater Trenton Behavioral Healthcare knew that a building on South Broad Street was a hotspot for illegal activity months before they chose to move Rodney Burke into an apartment there.
“The counselor said, ‘Now looking back, we think we failed him,’” his sister Crystal Burke said.
Rodney Burke, 48, was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds inside his South Broad Street apartment around 2 a.m. on Nov. 4; he later died at the hospital.
According to his family, Burke was diagnosed with schizophrenia and also had a “lower than average” IQ. He was raised in New Brunswick. For about a year and a half, though, Burke lived in city housing provided by Greater Trenton Behavioral Healthcare (GTBHC). He used to live in an apartment building on Hamilton Avenue occupied by at least seven other people who are in transitional housing programs. During that time, though, Burke and the other occupants of the building were repeatedly victimized by street hustlers who took advantage of their disabilities. Then, about a month before his death, Burke was moved to the 1000 block of South Broad Street.
According to police documents obtained by The Trentonian, on July 16, 2014, a GTBHC counselor named Len Baum and a man who lived in the exact building where Burke was later moved to found guns and drug paraphernalia in the apartment. The items did not belong to the man, according to documents, and he told police that he was moving out of the apartment because he “didn’t feel safe.” Read more
Family members of a now-deceased Trenton man left the courtroom disgusted and with one lingering question after a jury returned a mixed-bag verdict late Thursday in the attempted murder trial of reputed Latin Kings gang member Juan Colon.
Barbara Cruz, aunt of 28-year-old Orlando “Coco” Sanchez, wanted to know why, if Colon had nothing to do with her nephew’s death, did he fly to Florida days after Sanchez was gunned down on a city street in September 2012. Colon was on trial for Sanchez’s attempted murder, which prosecutors say happened two weeks before Sanchez was gunned down on a city street.
Colon was considered a person of interest, but was never charged for the murder, which remains unsolved.
The only explanation from Colon, 46, who didn’t testify, came from his attorney, who said his client visited family members. Read more
A city man accused in the July shooting death of Enrico Smalley Jr. pleaded not guilty to murder charges and rejected an offer from prosecutors calling for a 45-year prison term during a contentious status hearing Wednesday, highlighted by renewed bickering about discovery issues from attorneys involved in the case.
Shaheed Brown, 30, was indicted in November on counts of first-degree murder and weapons offense in connection with the July 12 death of Smalley, who was shot multiple times outside of La Guira Bar.
Brown’s attorney, Edward Heyburn said his client didn’t need time to mull the offer, which was rejected outright, and he asked a judge to fast-track the case for trial.
Heyburn spent the remainder of the hearing renewing gripes about outstanding discovery he said hasn’t been turned over by Assistant Prosecutor Brian McCauley. He wanted names of all bar patrons who were present the night Smalley was shot, presumably so he can build a defense that appears to rely on the notion that someone other than Brown pulled the trigger that night. Read more
A reputed member of the Latin Kings street gang elected not to testify in his attempted murder trial, but prosecutors are hoping an untaped confession he made to detectives inside a Florida interrogation room is enough to convince a jury, which began deliberations Wednesday, to reach a guilty verdict.
Juan Colon, 46, was arrested in 2012 by U.S Marshals in Florida where he fled after he learned he was a person of interest in the murder of 28-year-old Orlando Sanchez.
Colon is not on trial for Sanchez’s murder, which remains unsolved, but rather an attempt he allegedly made on Sanchez’s life Aug. 25, 2012 during a senseless dispute at Sanchez’s Elm Street home.
That’s when, witnesses testified, Colon fired a single shot at Sanchez while he fled up the stairs. Colon became enraged because his sleeping girlfriend refused to come downstairs. Read more
