Homicide Watch Trenton

Edna White

On Thursday, the Mercer County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death of 55-year-old Dwelle Jerome Clark a homicide.

Prosecutors are now in the process of filing murder charges against the woman accused of stabbing and killing Clark: 56-year-old Edna White.

According to witnesses, around 10:15 p.m. Saturday, White stabbed Clark in the chest after he caught her rummaging through his mother’s handbag.
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Dwelle Jerome Clark was stabbed in the stomach by his ex-girlfriend Edna White moments after he caught her rummaging through his mother’s handbag.

“He said, ‘Stay out of my mom’s things,’” witness to the stabbing Omar Mills said Wednesday.

According to Mills, after Clark, 55, uttered those words, White, 56, started hitting him with a walking cane. Clark then took the cane away from her, Mills said, and walked into his bedroom. White then grabbed a butcher knife from atop a dresser, followed Clark into his room and stabbed him in the abdomen, Mills said.

“It was senseless,” Mills said. “There was blood all over the walls and all over the floor. It was everywhere.”
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By Carlos Avila, The Trentonian

Saturday’s killing of 18-year old Julio Cesar Cruz in Trenton’s Chambersburg section has garnered national attention as the details of the incident continue to emerge.
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A friend shows the photo of Julio Cesar Cruz. Cruz, a resident of Trenton’s South Ward was beat to death Saturday evening in front of his home. Trentonian Photo/CARLOS AVILA.

By Carlos Avila, The Trentonian

Julio Cesar Cruz, a resident of Trenton’s South Ward was beaten to death Saturday evening. According to witnesses, the 18-year old native of San Marcos, Guatemala, suffered traumatizing blows to his body and head which caused him to lose consciousness and fall to the ground banging his head on the concrete front porch of his Rusling Street home.

According to his roommates, at around 6:30 p.m., Cruz went to a bakery on Whittaker Avenue to buy his take-out dinner. Twenty minutes later as he approached his house on the way back, two African-American males with hoodies grabbed him and started pounding him.
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An 18-year-old city man walking home in the heart of the city’s Chambersburg section was the victim of an apparent robbery gone wrong, authorities said.

Julio Lopez-Cruz was the victim of a Saturday night robbery gone awry, authorities said on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of friends)

The victim, identified by the authorities as 18-year-old Julio Lopez-Cruz (according to birth records obtained by The Trentonian he is ID’d as Julio Cesar Cruz)  was returning home from a shopping trip with groceries in hand,  around 6:45 p.m. on Saturday night, when two assailants descended upon him and began their robbery attempt.
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The last time Catina Hunter spoke with her 16-year-old son Marcus Hunter was around 2 p.m. on Feb. 11, 2013. The conversation lasted about five minutes. Hunter told his mother that he would soon join her and about 20 other people for his sister’s birthday party at his grandmother’s house on West Hanover Street.

“Well, I’m just sitting here waiting for you to come,” Catina Hunter recalls telling her son.

And then they hung up. She never imagined that would be their last conversation.
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Earlier this week, Trenton police implemented a new “specialized street crime unit” aimed at replacing the department’s Tactical Anti-Crime unit that was disbanded in December 2012.

“The big difference between this new unit and the previous TAC unit is that TAC had no general order laying out its function, duties, responsibilities and tactics,” Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said Tuesday evening. “This new unit has a mission with clearly defined tactics and techniques.”

The new yet-to-be-named unit consists of two squads, with eight officers assigned to each squad. And one officer on each squad has a K-9 partner. These 16 officers, Rivera said, were already assigned to TPD’s Patrol Division. “This is a unit within the patrol,” Rivera said.
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Two men were indicted Wednesday in connection with the shooting death of 35-year-old Andre Corbett.

Around 3 p.m. on Jan. 21, 2013, Corbett was gunned down in the 100 block of Oakland Street. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Court documents state that the entire incident was captured by surveillance video. And within a couple days of the shooting, Keith Wells-Holmes, 21, and Zihqwan Clemens, 23, were arrested and charged in connection with Corbett’s death.
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Update: This man has been identified as 79-year-old Roman Vila, and his death has been ruled the result of natural causes. Police say he suffered a cardiac arrest.

A man was found dead Thursday morning lying on the sidewalk outside a residence on William Street, and police are calling the death “suspicious.”

According to Trenton Police Lt. Stephen Varn, around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, officers were dispatched to the 200 block of William Street where they found a man lying on the sidewalk. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

It’s too early in the investigation to speculate, Varn said, “but right now it’s a suspicious death.”
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Officials have identified the gunshot victim found in a burning car earlier this month as 22-year-old Chevin Burgess.

Around 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 4, police were dispatched to the 100 block of Hart Avenue to investigate a burning car. And after firefighters extinguished the blaze, sources say, they found a body inside the vehicle.
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