Dante Alexander | Homicide Watch Trenton

Trenton man gets 50 years for murder, another gets 15 for deadly attack

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 17:02:53 -0400

Recent court sentencings in Trenton show that trial-by-jury convictions generally lead to significantly more prison time than negotiating a guilty plea.

Dante Alexander, 33, of Trenton, this week received 50 years of imprisonment for shooting and killing 26-year-old Brandon Nance outside a city bakery in 2013. He pleaded not guilty in the case and took it to trial, where a jury of his peers convicted him in May of first-degree murder for slaying Nance in cold blood on Aug. 29, 2013, in front of the Italian People’s Bakery on Butler Street in broad daylight.

Dante Alexander

Alexander will have to serve at least 85 percent of his term behind bars and will be subjected to five years of parole supervision upon release, according to his defense attorney Christopher T. Campbell.

Meanwhile, self-confessed killer Michael Holman received 15 years of imprisonment for fatally injuring 18-year-old Julio Cesar Cruz in 2014. Holman, who turns 22 later this month, approached Cruz in the first block of Rusling Street and slammed the victim on the ground Feb. 15, 2014. Cruz suffered a mortal head injury during the attack and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Holman was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty earlier this year to first-degree aggravated manslaughter. He could have received 30 years to life in prison if he had been convicted at trial, but Holman averted that by fessing up to his crimes under a negotiated plea agreement.

Michael Holman

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier sentenced Holman on Aug. 30 to 15 years of incarceration in the Trenton homicide case and seven years of incarceration in a separate aggravated assault case involving an incident that occurred Aug. 27, 2014, when Holman was jailed at the county lockup in Hopewell Township on high monetary bail. He pleaded guilty in both cases and will concurrently serve out his sentences.

Dante Martin, 21, of Trenton, a co-defendant in Holman’s homicide case, was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning for a status conference.

Jury: Dante Alexander is a murderous gunman, William Mitchell is not

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Wed, 31 May 2017 20:33:02 -0400

Dante Alexander

William Mitchell received delayed justice on Wednesday when a jury found him not guilty of murder while Dante Alexander was brought to justice on Wednesday as jurors unanimously convicted him of shooting and killing a Trenton man.

Mitchell, 29, of Trenton, smiled and held his head up high after a jury acquitted him on all charges.

William "Bill Bill" Mitchell

“Yes, you coming home!” one of Mitchell’s loved ones said in the courtroom after 12 jurors unanimously cleared him of murder charges and weapons offenses.

“Free that innocent man!” another loved one shouted.

Indeed, Mitchell was slated to be released after Wednesday’s verdict. He was incarcerated on a high bail at the Mercer County Correction Center on allegations that accused him of shooting and killing 23-year-old Daquan Dowling during a Route 29 drive-by shooting in Trenton on Jan. 30, 2012.

The state initially tried Mitchell on murder charges last fall in a trial that ended in a hung jury. Seven months later, another jury of Mitchell’s peers exonerated him as the state failed to meet its burden of proof.

Defense attorney Mark Fury, who represented Mitchell in the murder retrial, said the state failed to win a conviction because “the facts just weren’t there” to support the charges. “I’m happy to do this job, and I take my job very seriously,” Fury told Trenton Homicide Watch after Wednesday’s verdict. “But just like in boxing where ‘styles make fights,’ in cases ‘facts make trials.’”

Fury pointed out the fact that Mitchell is the second defendant to be found not guilty of all charges in connection with Dowling’s violent death. A co-defendant in the case, 25-year-old Andre Romero, was found not guilty last October of all charges.

“Obviously we have to respect the jury’s verdict,” Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor James Scott told Trenton Homicide Watch on Wednesday. He said he disagrees with the jury’s verdict but reiterated that “you have to respect the jury’s verdict under the circumstances.”

Dowling was driving a white Ford Taurus on Route 29 northbound near the War Memorial in Trenton when perpetrators drove alongside him and fired a shot that struck him in the head, killing him instantly on Jan. 30, 2012. The crime scene was so large that police had to take aerial photos from a helicopter.

But the evidence that prosecutors presented at trial did not leave a jury firmly convinced that Mitchell was responsible for Dowling’s death. A New Jersey State Police trooper who testified in the retrial conceded that Mitchell’s fingerprints were not found anywhere inside the stolen vehicle that was used in the drive-by shooting.

No one has been convicted of killing Dowling, but co-defendant Anthony Marks, 28, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a handgun in 2015; co-defendant Jamar Square, 24, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a handgun in 2013; and co-defendant Louis Alvardo, 26, pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property in 2014.

Chambersburg slaying

Trenton gunman Dante Alexander, 33, on Wednesday was convicted of shooting and killing 26-year-old Brandon Nance outside a city bakery in 2013. The jury was firmly convinced he murdered Nance in broad daylight on Aug. 29, 2013, in front of the Italian People’s Bakery on Butler Street.

The jury found Alexander guilty of murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose but found him not guilty of unlawful possession of a weapon. The conviction on the murder charge alone puts Alexander on track to receive a sentence ranging from 30 years to life in state prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

“While we are disappointed in the verdict,” Alexander’s defense attorney Christopher T. Campbell said, “we are confident on appeal the court will reverse, because we were improperly denied a pretrial hearing to determine whether the jury should have seen the evidence that it did.”

Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Tim Ward presented the jury with powerful evidence in Alexander’s murder trial, but Campbell says some of that evidence probably would not have been allowed in the trial if the court had previously conducting an evidentiary hearing pertaining to certain evidence that Campbell wanted to suppress.

Campbell after Wednesday’s verdict vowed to file a timely motion demanding a new trial for his client and said he will be prepared to appeal Alexander’s convictions to a higher court if the new trial is not granted.

Trenton man charged with murder offered plea deal

Isaac Avilucea — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 13:37:38 -0400

One of two Trenton men accused of gunning down 26-year-old Brandon Nance outside a city bakery in 2013 was offered a plea deal by prosecutors calling for a 28-year sentence.

Dante Alexander

Dante Alexander, 31, was indicted earlier this year on counts of murder and weapons offenses after prosecutors said he fatally shot Nance in broad daylight Aug. 29, 2013 in front of Italian People’s Bakery on Butler Street.

Under terms of the plea deal, Alexander would be required to plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter and an unrelated robbery. He would receive a concurrent 15-year sentence on the robbery charge, which stems from a 2013 armed holdup of two Philadelphia residents on Perry Street.

The proposed deal is contingent on Alexander providing information to prosecutors, Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Korngut said at a status hearing Monday. He was not more specific.

A second gunman remains unidentified and at large, prosecutors said.

Surveillance captured Nance being shot multiple times. He collapsed in front of the bakery and was shot several more times while he lay on the ground. Police recovered 16 .40-caliber shell casings along Butler Street.

Alexander, who was arrested in Virginia last May, remains jailed on $1 million bail. His next court appearance is scheduled for June.

Trenton man indicted in connection with Brandon Nance murder

Penny Ray — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 15:29:07 -0500

A city man has been indicted in connection with a 2013 shooting that left a man dead outside of a Chambersburg landmark.

Brandon Nance, 26, was gunned down outside of Italian People’s Bakery on Butler Street around 12:20 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2013.

Dante Alexander

Prosecutors say 20-year-old Dante Alexander and a yet-to-be-apprehended second suspect shot Nance several times before he collapsed in front of the bakery, and then pumped more bullets into him as he laid on the ground.

Prosecutors say police found sixteen 40-caliber shell casings along Butler Street, and the shooting was captured on surveillance video.

Alexander was arrested in Virginia in May of last year and charged with murder and related weapons offenses in connection with Nance’s death. He was indicted on those charges last month and remains in the Mercer County Correction Center on $1 million bail.