Marquis Skillman | Homicide Watch Trenton

2 Trenton men get hit with prison sentences in connection with murder cases

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 17:42:56 -0500

Marquis Skillman

Two Trenton men charged in separate murder cases will serve hard time behind bars.

Marquis Skillman, 30, received an 11-year prison sentence last week for his role in the 2013 shooting death of Rayshawn Ransom while Tomarkus Whitfield, 39, received a sentence of 19 years and six months in the slammer for killing Pinkey Priester in 2014.

Under Skillman’s plea deal, he admitted guilt to robbery and a weapons offense in exchange for prosecutors dismissing murder charges against him. Skillman was one of the three men charged in connection with the slaying of Ransom, 19, on June 12, 2013, in the city of Trenton.

The other defendants in the case were Alton Jones, 25, who pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, and Dyquise Leonard, also 25, who has pleaded guilty to attempted murder. Prosecutors say Jones is the defendant who fired the shot that killed Ransom.

Skillman, who was represented by private attorney Michael Kuhns, must serve nine years and four months in state prison before he is eligible for parole.

Tomarkus Whitfield

Whitfield pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, extreme indifference to human life, in exchange for prosecutors dismissing his murder charges and weapons offenses. He shot and killed 33-year-old Priester in Trenton on June 16, 2014. The self-confessed killer was represented by pool attorney Ronald Garzio in the criminal proceedings that ended with Whitfield receiving nearly 20 years of imprisonment.

Trenton detective tells tale of the tapes in Batie murder retrial

Isaac Avilucea — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 18:24:25 -0400

Veteran city police detective Scott Peterson believes he has a keen eye for criminals.

But will jurors in the second murder trial of two men suspected of killing off-duty Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie see what the Trenton Police detective sees on surveillance tapes?

Peterson, the husky homicide investigator, remarked with an air of exactitude during hours of testimony Wednesday that he knows Maurice Skillman and Hykeem Tucker were behind the murder of Batie.

Maurice Skillman

Peterson’s convictions on the stand were steeled from reviewing numerous camera angles that showed the exterior and interior of the Baldassari Regency banquet hall in the early-morning hours of Nov. 11, 2012.

“I continued to watch the video, hours and hours,” he said, noting how his attention was drawn to the man wearing the distinctive varsity jacket.

The surveillance tapes are the cornerstone of prosecutors’ case against the two suspected killers.

Relevant portions of the tapes were culled from more than 50 hours of footage, then shown to jurors on an overhead projector screen.

The gritty images were often fleeting, jurors and those in the courtroom gallery having to strain their eyes and reach for the Visine after a long day of testimony.

Even Peterson, with his trained eyes, at times had a hard time gazing from the witness stand. But he’s has seen these videos for so long, they are almost a part of him.

He said the “Tall Guy” who appeared on the tapes was none other than suspected shooter Maurice Skillman, Tucker, the alleged lookout, “Varsity Jacket.”

Defense attorneys have portrayed the tapes as black-and-white footage that does not clearly show the shooting, let alone whether their clients' alleged involvement.

Partly for that reason, the men are on trial a second time, in what has turned into a Gordian knot of a murder case for prosecutors. As it goes, there is no motive and no murder weapon.

On some level, the case rises and falls with the tapes and with the word of Peterson, a towering man with jagged salt-and-pepper hair and a paunch that is on par with most middle-aged men.

Dressed in a dark suit and a neatly tied tie, Peterson put his best foot forward for jurors. But they are really being asked to rely on his eyes.

Peterson told the panel how he reached out to NFL Films and a law enforcement consultant group to see if they could enhance surveillance to draw out his suspects more.

Guiding jurors through the tapes, Peterson focused in on “Tall Guy” and “Varsity Jacket” because of their give-away clothes, mannerisms and actions leading up to the murder.

Hykeem Tucker

He said he traced their steps – from the moment they arrived with in a blue Chevrolet Impala that belonged to the girlfriend of Marquis Skillman, Maurice’s twin brother – to the time he said a shadowy “silhouette” raised an outstretched arm around 1:15 a.m. and let off 22 shots in seconds on the packed deck of the banquet hall.

Batie was shot in the head while he stood with a friend. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Last time, a jury was not convinced.

A trial in February resulted in mistrial when a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict, guaranteeing a second round of Peterson and Co.

This panel must also decide if Peterson's vision is on the money.

The detective, once again, played the part of outsized tour guide, gesturing to jurors to take note of certain times on the tapes when he said Skillman and Tucker set their plan in action.

He described the garb the two men wore, Tucker dressed in a varsity jacket, bearing decals on the left breast and left arm of the jacket.

A man bearing a strong resemblance to Tucker was also captured wearing a dark-colored varsity jacket with what appeared to be white arms inside the club.

Jurors were shown a blown-up photo of the man standing next to Marquis Skillman, who was not charged in connection with Batie’s murder.

Marquis Skillman may prove key for prosecutors. The twin brother was called as a witness this week and largely dodged prosecutors’ questions on the stand when asked about what he told Peterson during an interview in January 2013.

Jurors were shown the interview a day later, in which Marquis Skillman marked up photos for Peterson, pointing out himself and a man he knew as “Tex.” Tex is Tucker’s nickname.

He also told the detective he was at the banquet hall with his brother, Maurice.

Maurice Skillman’s defense attorney has always acknowledged the brothers were at the club that night, to have a good time. But Nicole Carlo said her client ended up wrongfully accused of murder.

For Peterson, Marquis Skillman’s interview proved critical in helping him identify Tucker and Maurice Skillman at later times during the tapes.

Marquis Skillman

While Peterson’s vision may be 20/20, and prosecutors hope jurors believe his word is golden, it is difficult to tell whether two men who rifled through a white van and walked back and forth from alleyways near the parking lot of the banquet hall minutes before the murder are the same men who appear to resemble Tucker and Maurice Skillman on surveillance tapes inside Baldassari.

Peterson testified that both men climbed inside a white van, apparently to retrieve something. He used a laser point to explain to jurors that one surveillance angle capturing the rear of the van showed Varsity Jacket – Tucker – reaching into the back seat.

He said if jurors looked closely they would see Tucker’s white-armed varsity jacket poking out from the rear window.

Nonplussed by the defendants’ claims of innocence, Peterson said Maurice Skillman was also captured by the tapes fleeing shortly after the shooting, with his arm by his side and “a black object” in his hand.

Peterson is back on the stand Thursday.

Batie murder suspect's brother mostly mum on witness stand

Isaac Avilucea — Tue, 31 May 2016 17:29:06 -0400

The tantrum-throwing, paper-tossing twin brother of a suspected killer behaved a bit better on the witness stand the second time around.

Marquis Skillman

The last time he was on the stand a few months ago, Marquis Skillman, the twin brother of suspected killer Maurice Skillman, tossed the written statement he gave Trenton detectives to the ground and kept his eyes downcast, never eyeballing jurors.

He wasn’t helpful to prosecutors or defense attorneys at the first trial for Maurice Skillman and alleged accomplice Hykeem Tucker, who are charged with murder in the slaying of off-duty Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie.

Batie was shot in the head in the early-morning hours of Nov. 11, 2012 as he stood on the deck of the Baldassari Regency banquet hall.

At the first trial in February, Marquis Skillman, who was not charged in connection with Batie's murder, cursed at court officials and responded 57 times that he didn’t know or didn’t remember what attorneys were talking about when they asked him about information he provided to authorities during a January 2013 interview with Trenton Detective Scott Peterson.

On Tuesday, during the murder retrial, Marquis Skillman still wasn’t much help to prosecutors, repeating the same foggy memory routine.

But he wasn’t as combative with Assistant Prosecutor James Scott.

Wearing a crisp white button-up shirt, his hair in tight cornrows and a scraggly beard on his face, Marquis Skillman largely refused to testify about what he told detectives in the interview. He had acknowledged in the interview that he and his brother had driven together to the banquet hall on the night of the murder.

Hykeem Tucker

But this time, Marquis Skillman didn’t toss his statement. He just played dumb when the prosecutors asked him whether he met with Peterson on Jan. 9, 2013.

During the interview, Marquis Skillman picked Tucker -- whom he knew as “Tex” -- and his brother out in photos.

As defense attorneys pointed out, he was not asked to identify them as the suspects in a murder.

Marquis Skillman, who is incarcerated awaiting sentencing on his own robbery charges, pretty much told the prosecutor he couldn’t pick Peterson out of a photo lineup of to save his life.

The portly Peterson is one of Trenton’s most recognizable detectives.

Marquis Skillman was asked if it would help him remember if Scott described the husky homicide investigator.

He’s white, standing about 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighing 270 pounds, the prosecutor said.

Marquis Skillman stared back blankly. Didn’t jog his memory, he said.

He remained that way for most of the 30 minutes he was on the witness standing, responding marginally better to questions from defense attorneys.

Prosecutors plan to show jurors the tape of Marquis Skillman's interview with detectives.

Maurice Skillmans.

The tapes from Baldassari were also the focus of much of Tuesday’s testimony.

Ronald Kinnunen, a detective in Trenton Police’s technical services unit, was pressed up about the process it took to get surveillance footage off the banquet hall’s “antiquated” surveillance system.

Kinnunen said he copied the footage minute-for-minute onto a camcorder in a time crunch.

Detectives rode him to get large swatches of the tapes so they identify people who they needed to speak with as part of the investigation into Batie’s murder.

He was asked repeatedly, and responded again and again, that he felt the quality of the surveillance tapes was not impacted by the steps he was forced to take to ensure the surveillance was preserved.

Kinnunen often used techie jargon, which was made worse when combined with his cop-speak-riddled testimony, in explaining to jurors the steps he took to download the surveillance tapes.

The tapes are the cornerstone of the prosecutors’ case against Maurice Skillman and Tucker.

Peterson, the lead detective, is expected to guide jurors through the surveillance tapes begining Wednesday. He is expected to testify the rest of the week.

Trenton man charged in Mercer County corrections officer’s slaying was arrested night of murder

Isaac Avilucea — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 13:36:39 -0500

Maurice Skillman

Maurice Skillman was arrested for fighting with another black man outside of Trenton banquet hall on the same day a Mercer County corrections officer was gunned down there while attending a re-election party for President Barack Obama, according to testimony.

Trenton Police Officer Timothy Long said he pulled up to a panicked scene outside of the Baldassari Regency banquet hall in the early-morning hours of Nov. 11, 2012.

Hundreds of people had poured out into the streets after Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie was shot in the head while he was talking to a security guard on the balcony of the banquet hall, and several street fights had broken out near the intersection of Morris Avenue and Division Street, Long said.

Long said his attention was drawn toward two black males scuffling on Division Street. He ordered them to stop fighting and looked to intervene when they shrugged him off.

One of the men, wearing a black hoodie and gray pants, the officer learned was Skillman, one of two men who would later find themselves charged with Batie’s murder. Hykeem Tucker is the second suspect in Batie’s death.

Long’s testimony about Skillman’s clothing is important because it did not match the description of a shooter provided by a witness who testified Thursday morning. It was also notable because Long couldn’t identify Skillman in the courtroom, significant because Skillman has a twin brother, Marquis.

Alex Feliciano, a convicted felon who was working security detail and speaking with Batie on the balcony about the correction officer’s pit bull breeding business seconds before he was shot, said he caught a glimpse of the gunman, who was clad in a gray hooded sweatshirt.

Feliciano was perched on a wooden plank, keeping an eye on the crowd on the balcony, when gunfire erupted.

He said he didn’t see the shooter’s face, but described how the gunman mounted the hood of a car in the parking lot below, about 15 to 20 feet from where Feliciano and Batie were standing above, and let off 15 to 20 rounds.

Skillman’s attorney, Jason Charles Matey, attacked Feliciano’s testimony about how he remained on the wooden plank for a few moments while risking getting struck by bullets.

Matey also pounced on inconsistencies in the statement Feliciano provided to police the night Batie was killed, saying he did not tell police he saw a man in a gray hoodie opening fire.

“Mr. Feliciano, you left out the most critical part that you saw the shooter?” Matey asked.

“I know what I saw,” Feliciano said. “I remember that night like it’s yesterday.”

Feliciano grew combative when Matey ticked off his rap sheet, noting numerous convictions for aggravated assault, in addition to pending charges of aggravated assault and burglary.

“What does my prison record have anything to do with this?” Feliciano said. “I’m not a liar, and I know what I saw.”

This was before Long took the stand and said he saw Skillman throw two punches at another man on Division Street and zig-zag through the crowd when he noticed the police officer on his heels.

“He was moving at a quick Pace,” Long said.

When Skillman attempted to hop a fence on the 400 block of Division Street, Long drew his gun and ordered him off the gate. Skillman was arrested and frisked, the police officer said on cross examination, but no handgun was found.

Skillman had some personal effects, including a black wallet and Trojan Magnum condoms, which were taken from him when he was processed at Trenton Police headquarters, Long said.

He was charged with improper behavior and obstructing the administration of justice, Long said. A month later, Skillman was charged with murder.

Christopher Campbell, Tucker’s attorney, noted on his cross examination of Long that Tucker was nowhere to be seen.

“You didn’t come into contact with anyone named Hykeem Tucker did you?” he asked

“Excuse me,” Long said.

“Exactly,” Campbell responded, before sitting down.

Trenton Police crime scene detective Maricelis Rosa-Delgado spent the remainder of the afternoon camped out on the witness stand, meticulously describing items she collected from the crime scene.

They included 22 spent shell casings and two bullet fragments found in the parking lot of the banquet hall. She also collected a black winter hat, a ski mask, a red and blue Snapback baseball hat, a lighter and a black and white bandana.

She dusted for fingerprints and took DNA swabs off three vehicles in the banquet parking lot.

She salvaged only a single fingerprint which did not contain enough “rich detail” for a comparison to be made with fingerprints maintained in a law enforcement database, Rosa-Delgado said.

As court broke for the day, Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson ripped into prosecutors for putting “piles and piles” of evidence before jurors. He said they are left sorting through “a bunch of stuff” that isn’t “relevant, authentic.”

“What did you get is really the question,” Smithson said.

Assistant Prosecutor James Scott told the judge it was important to put as much evidence before jurors – even if it didn’t point to the defendants – to ensure they understand police performed an exhaustive investigation.

“If the jury doesn’t hear that evidence, defense counsel will stand up and say, ‘It’s a rush to judgement,’” Scott said.

The trial resumes Monday at 9 a.m.

Trenton man charged in relation to city shooting death pleads guilty to robbery

Isaac Avilucea — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 14:10:26 -0400

A man implicated with two others for his role in a deadly, gang-related shootout that ended the life of Rayshawn Ransom in June 2013 pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and is expected to be sentenced to 11 years in state prison.

Marquis Skillman

Marquis Skillman, 28, was charged along with West Ward gang members Alton Jones, 23, and Dyquise Leonard, 20, in connection with the June 12, 2013 fatal shooting death of Ransom, 19, who was gunned down while he sat in a car with friends on Passaic Street.

Authorities said Jones and Leonard were involved in an ongoing feud with a group of people who hailed from Passaic Street. The two groups met that day as part of an expected truce when Jones, Leonard and Skillman reportedly opened fire on three men, including Ransom who was seated in the car. Ransom’s friends were wounded in the shootout.

Skillman, who is free on bail and appeared in court from the streets, is the twin brother of Maurice Skillman, who was charged with the November 2012 murder of of Mercer County Corrections Officer Carl Batie.

While Marquis Skillman admitted Monday he was armed with a handgun, he did not say he opened fire on the vehicle carrying Ransom.

Prosecutors said Skillman did not fire into the car, and investigators have said the fatal shot came from Jones’ 10 mm automatic handgun, which witnesses said was tossed out of a getaway car that sped away from the scene.

Prosecutors would not say if Skillman, who was initially charged with murder for Ransom’s death, must cooperate against his codefendants as part of the plea deal.

Jones also faces murder charges for the fatal shooting death of Tiara Green. 19, who was shot in the stomach three days later on the same street as Ransom. He has rejected prosecutors’ offer of 40 years.Leonard pleaded guilty to attempted murder for Ransom's death as part of a 12-year sentence.

Skillman’ sentencing date was not immediately available.

Dyquise Leonard pleads guilty in connection with Rayshawn Ransom murder

Penny Ray — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 18:38:05 -0400

One of the three men charged in connection with the shooting death of Rayshawn Ransom pled guilty Tuesday to one count of attempted murder.

Ransom, 19, was shot and killed on June 12, 2013, while sitting in a car with two friends on Passaic Street. Authorities have said that Alton Jones, 23, and Dyquise Leonard, 20, are gang members from the West Ward who had some kind of dispute with a group of people from Passaic Street. A meeting about a truce was scheduled between the two groups, but as soon as the factions came face to face, Jones, Leonard, and Marquis Skillman allegedly started firing bullets into the car. Two of Ransom’s friends were wounded in the deadly barrage.

Although all three suspects allegedly fired into the car, prosecutors say that Jones was responsible for firing the kill shot, which came from a distinctive 10mm automatic handgun that witnesses pointed out to police after it was tossed from the getaway car around the corner from the shooting scene.

Leonard pled guilty Tuesday to one count of attempted murder after rejecting a plea deal on Monday. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Leonard will be sentenced to 12 years in prison, and he must serve 85 percent of that sentence before he is eligible for parole. A sentencing date has not been scheduled at this time.

Two suspects in Trenton murders reject plea deals, will go to trial

Paul Mickle — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 17:19:08 -0400

A suspect in four New Jersey murders was offered 40 years in prison Monday for guilty pleas to his two alleged slayings in Mercer County last summer.

Alton Jones, 23, appeared before Mercer Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez along with his suspected accomplice in the first murder, Dyquise Leonard, who rejected a deal giving him 13 years in prison.

Both were charged with killing Rayshawn Ransom, 19, in a hail of bullets fired at him and two friends sitting in a car along Passaic Street on June 12, 2013.

Jones is additionally charged with firing away at a group of 30 people on Passaic three days later and hitting Tiara Green, 19, in the stomach, killing her, before fleeing to Connecticut.

Assistant Mercer Prosecutor Lew Korngut made the plea offers, which both were rejected, meaning the allegations against them will be heard at trial, and each could get more than 30 years in prison if convicted.

Authorities said Jones and Leonard, 20, are gang members from the West Ward who had some kind of dispute with the crowd on Passaic Street.

A meeting about a truce was set up but as soon as the factions came face to face, Jones, Leonard, and Marquis Skillman allegedly started pumping bullets into the car. Two of Ransom’s friends were wounded in the deadly barrage.

Korngut said investigators tied Jones to the deadly shot, which came from a distinctive 10 mm automatic handgun that witnesses pointed out to street cops after it was tossed from the Cadillac Eldorado getaway car around the corner from the shooting scene.

Leonard is being represented by lawyer Diane Frost. Jones, who also faces two other murder charges in Hudson County, had defenseman Andrew DuClair.

Jones was ordered held on $1.5 million cash bail after his arrest. Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier also ordered high bail for Leonard and both appeared in shackles and prison jumpsuits for the hearings, which were attended by several members of both victims’ families.