Homicide Watch Trenton

A couple of days after Rodney Ellis Sutphin’s death, police raided his Grant Avenue home around 4 a.m. and pointed guns equipped with laser sights at the occupants of the house.

“The cops yelled, ‘Come downstairs right now; open the f***ing door,’” Sutphin’s aunt Tina Ellis said. “As soon as I opened the door, they had their shields up with laser beams all over the place.”

Rodney Sutphin

Police were looking for Raesean Sutphin — Rodney’s brother — but his family said the officers didn’t make it clear why they wanted to arrest him.

One day prior to the raid, a man and a woman were wounded by gunfire near the intersection of Girard and St. Joe’s avenues. Raesean Sutphin was identified as one of four suspects in that shooting and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force then set out to find him. Read more

The man accused of killing 33-year-old Pinkey Priester was indicted on December 19, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.

A grand jury indicted Tomarkus Whitfield, 36, of Trenton on one count of murder, one count of second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun and one count of second-degree certain persons not to possess a firearm.

Tomarkus Whitfield

According to reports, police responded to a shooting in progress in the 300 block of Centre Street on June 16. When they arrived they found Priester lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds. He later died after being taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center. Read more

No single person’s death is more important than another’s: each murder brings heartbreak and suffering to people who are still living.

The loss of any life — be it man, woman, elder or child — affects not only those who loved the deceased, but also Trenton as a whole. Several cases captured the city’s hearts and minds this year, for a variety of reasons. This is a short list of those that were most captivating. Read more

When Jamer Greenfield was eight or nine years old, the man he thought was his father told him that he no longer wanted to be a part of his life.

“I came home from work one day and Jamer was crying,” his mother Talaya Greenfield said. “He said, ‘My dad said he wasn’t my dad anymore.’ I thought to myself, ‘Oh God. Why didn’t he let me tell him?’”

The father mixup was an honest mistake, Talaya said, but the news “destroyed” her son. It set Jamer on a path of mischief, with little-to-no direction for life goals. At the age of 10, Greenfield stole someone’s bike, his mother said, and by the time he became a teenager, he turned to street hustling. Read more

A city man accused in the June 2013 stabbing death of his former girlfriend plans to raise a mental defense, claiming he was in a “diminished” state and unable to comprehend what he was doing at the time he allegedly took scissors and stabbed the woman in the neck more than a dozen times, his attorney said.

William Nobles

At a July court appearance, the defense attorney for William Nobles, 41, asked that her client undergo a psychological exam, paving the way for the mental defense.

Nobles’ attorney, Jenna Casper, confirmed that was the case at a Thursday status conference in Superior Court, saying Nobles was in a “diminished capacity” when he repeatedly plunged a pair of scissors into the neck of 54-year-old Celeste Pernell on June 1, 2013. Read more

Fearful that pretrial publicity could impede the ability of the state to put on its case against a city man accused in the shooting death of 20-year-old Enrico Smalley Jr., a Superior Court judge sealed the court file and imposed a gag order that prevents attorneys from discussing the case outside of court.

The ruling from Judge Robert Billmeier comes days after The Trentonian published a story based off surveillance footage it obtained from attorney Edward Heyburn, who is defending suspect Shaheed Brown. Brown, 30, was indicted in November on charges of murder and weapons offense in connection with Smalley’s death.

Billmeier ordered attorneys to refrain from discussing the case with the media, saying he is concerned that now that the video is public it could influence witness testimony. A state prosecutor said at a Wednesday hearing the disclosure of the video has already had a chilling effect on a potential witness. Reciting a number of court cases while issuing his ruling from the bench, Billmeier said he was forced to act to ensure the integrity of a potential trial. Read more

The mother of a Trenton teenager testified police didn’t have her permission to interview her son about potential involvement in the 2012 shooting death of a 21-year-old city man, contradicting a claim from police that they took proper steps before interrogating the underage suspect.

Tonyell Jackson, the mother of Zaire Jackson, recalled at a Miranda hearing she was with her two children at a city motel April 20, 2012, when she was visited by three plain-clothes detectives. She recognized one as Detective Otis Wood, who testified he stood by watching while another detective went over the form with Tonyell Jackson.

Police needed the form before they could interview Zaire Jackson, who was 17 at the time, about the April 9 murder of Irvin “Swirv” Jackson, an unrelated man who was shot in the head in broad daylight on Moses Alley near North Hermitage Avenue. Read more

Prosecutors aren’t saying whether one of two men arrested in the slaying of a city barber must testify against co-defendant and alleged gunman Zaire Smith as part of a plea deal that calls for a deacade-long prison sentence. Read more

Surveillance video from the morning Enrico Smalley Jr. was gunned down outside of La Guira Bar shows that someone other than Shaheed Brown gained his attention moments before he stepped outside.

The video also shows two men follow Brown and Smalley down the street moments before the shooting. Brown’s defense attorney Edward Heyburn says that one of those men is the actual shooter, and he believes police never made an attempt to find him.

“In the affidavit of probable cause, they don’t even mention this guy,” Heyburn said. “I don’t even think they’re looking for him.” Read more

The shooting death of a city man outside of a Trenton bar has drawn attention from the state Attorney General’s Office, which contacted the owner of the bar this week as part of an inquiry into the establishment’s practices, the owner said.

Martin Rodriguez, the owner of La Guira Bar, told The Trentonian he has spoken with someone from Alcoholic Beverage Control, a regulatory division of the Attorney General’s Office that oversees licensing and enforcement issues for New Jersey bars, in regards to the shooting death of 39-year-old Patrick Walker, who was gunned down outside the North Clinton Avenue establishment by an unknown assailant early Saturday morning. Read more