Homicide Watch Trenton

A homicide occurred around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night, marking the third killing of 2013 in Trenton and the second this week.
The victim was by a row house on the 1000 block of South Clinton Avenue.
Homicide detectives were on scene conducting their investigation. The male victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
A total of 22 people have been shot this year.

Police have arrested the alleged murderer of Andre Corbett the day after he was killed.
Keith Wells-Holmes, 20, of Trenton, was arrested and charged with murder and weapons offences Tuesday night at Trenton Police headquarters.
Corbett, 35, died on Monday at 2:43 p.m. after Wells-Holmes shot him multiple times before fleeing the scene on foot in front of a doorway at 194 Oakland Street, near Hoffman Avenue. Corbett’s body was visible to his family for an extended amount of time. His mother, Theresa Corbett’s cries could be heard from nearly a block away.
The TPD’s Det. Edgar Rios and Bryan Cottrell of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office were assigned to the case and they worked the case overnight. Through video surveillance and tips from the community, the detectives developed enough probable cause to arrest Wells-Holmes, Lt. Stephen Varn said.
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TRENTON — Two more witnesses added to the circumstantial evidence against suspected brother killer Tormu Prall yesterday, both testifying to hearing him make death threats.

Ex-girlfriend Jessie Harley testified that Prall told her “Cain killed Abel” and said he was going to kill his brother, John Prall. She also said she refused to take him to buy gasoline for a plastic gallon container he had.
City sanitation worker Paul Bethea testified that he had known the brothers for 10 years when, on the morning of Jan. 24, 2007, he spotted them from his trash rig arguing face to face outside the bank at East State and North Warren streets.

“It was serious. I started getting nosey and Tormu is like ‘Word is Bond,’”Betea said. “That means you got to get him before he gets you.”

For more on this case, see our story at Trentonian.com.

The trial for Lamar Warren, the seventh and final defendant in the murder of 13-year-old Tamrah Leonard, has been postponed as Warren will be changing attorneys.

Jury selection was to start on Tuesday, but instead Judge Mark Fleming met with prosecutors and Warren’s public defender, Ronald Garzio, behind closed doors.
It had come to light that Garzio had impermissible contact with two of the state’s witnesses. Fleming did not reveal who Garzio had contacted or what the nature of the communication was, but did have Garzio step down as Warren’s lawyer.
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A statement made in our most recent homicide story by the mother of Trenton’s latest victim has sparked much debate in online comment forums.

“They need to take these guns away,” said Theresa Corbett, mother of Andre Corbett, in an article by Brian Dzenis. “Everyone has guns, even kids.”

The grieving mother’s words have served to bring the gun control debate home to Trenton with people lining up on both sides of the argument.
Today’s Comment of the Day comes from a reader with the screen name Bettie, who seems to side with Corbett’s assessment while also addressing those who have cast aspersions against the victim, speculating that the lifestyle he lived contributed to his death.

“Guns, Guns everywhere…..and anybody can get easy access to one…..I pray that somehow we can get these guns off the street,” Bettie writes. “If there were more prison time given when you are caught with a gun illegally maybe and just maybe people would think twice about carrying….I have a son around this woman’s son age and he frequent those projects, I pray for him everyday…..You might not walk the straight and narrow, but God loves you and you are somebody’s son, brother, uncle, grandchild etc. No one deseves to die at the hands of another man…..One of the ten Commandments clearly states,”Thy shall not kill”. Who are you to take someone’s life? I will be praying for the mother and the family.”

Theresa Corbett could be heard from nearly a block away.

“Andre get up! Andre get up!” she shouted through the bars of a fence at her son, Andre Corbett, who she could see laying under a sheet.
Around 3:00 p.m., Corbett, 35, was gunned down just outside a doorway at 194 Oakland Street. He had been shot five times in the head, becoming Trenton’s second homicide of the year.Read more

Today’s Comment of the Day comes in two parts from the recent sentencing of Aljava Gaither.
Gaither received a sentence of 12 years for the killing of Craig Fitzgerald in a case portrayed as a personal dispute between the two men over $10.
On our recent story about the sentencing, the following comment was left by a reader with the screenname delham:

“Keep your head up Mr. Gaither. Do your time, get our early.
Anyone who examines the situation can see you acted in self defense.”

A different view of the case was written, however, when we posted a link to the story on the Homicide Watch Trenton Facebook page:

“They should of gave him life like he took a life.”
—Kenya Corbett

Kim Meadows, with burns over 40 precent of her body, took the stand Friday morning and began testifying tearfully that Tormu Prall repeatedly threatened to kill his own brother John Prall, who burned to death hours later in a firebombing.
“You’re food,” Meadows said the suspected arson killer told John, 40, over and over, explaining that the expression meant “dead” to Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Lew Korngut.
Meadows was seriously burned when the bedroom she was sharing with John Prall burst into flames the morning of Jan. 25, 2007.

U.S. Marshalls have arrested a man allegedly responsible for the Trenton’s first homicide of 2013 on Wednesday.

DeSean Clark, 32, of Ewing, was arrested in an Ewing apartment complex on Country Lane for the murder of James Threadgill, 54, of Trenton, just an hour into the new year.

Threadgill was killed around 1:00 a.m. New Years Day outside the Passions Nightclub. At the time of the murder, the Trentonian reported that Threadgill was shot because he allegedly cut in line at the club. It turns out that it was Clark who actually cut in line, sparking the confrontation leading to Threadgill’s death.

“[Clark] went to the front of the line and Threadgill was acting as the ‘keeper of the line,’” Sgt. Mark Kieffer said.

In the ensuing verbal and eventual physical confrontation, Clark shot Threadgill twice, once in the leg and once in the head, killing him. The incident was captured on surveillance tape, allowing police to identify the suspect. Clark has been charged with murder and weapons offenses.

TRENTON — “Cain killed Abel, and I’m going to kill my brother.”

A prosecutor on Thursday accused Tormu Prall of making this vow to a friend hours before he allegedly set fire to the sibling’s house, burning him alive.

In the days leading up to the arson-murder on Jan. 25, 2007, Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Lew Korngut said Tormu repeatedly threatened to kill John Prall for kicking him out of the family home on Trenton’s Wayne Avenue for not helping with the finances.

See more on this story at Trentonian.com.