Daquan Dowling | Homicide Watch Trentonhttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/victims/daquan-dowling/Latest news about Daquan Dowlingen-usWed, 31 May 2017 20:33:02 -0400Jury: Dante Alexander is a murderous gunman, William Mitchell is nothttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2017/05/31/jury-dante-alexander-is-a-murderous-gunman-william-mitchell-is-not/<a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2015/02/Dante-Alexander.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2749" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2015/02/Dante-Alexander.jpg" alt="Dante Alexander" width="480" height="600" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2015/02/Dante-Alexander.jpg 480w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2015/02/Dante-Alexander-240x300.jpg 240w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Dante Alexander</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Mitchell, 29, of Trenton, smiled and held his head up high after a jury acquitted him on all charges.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-4928" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell-150x150.jpg" alt="William &quot;Bill Bill&quot; Mitchell" width="150" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">William "Bill Bill" Mitchell</p> <p>“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.</p> <p>“Free that innocent man!” another loved one shouted.</p> <p>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.<span id="more-5675"></span></p> <p>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.</p> <p>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 <em>Trenton Homicide Watch</em> after Wednesday’s verdict. “But just like in boxing where ‘styles make fights,’ in cases ‘facts make trials.’”</p> <p>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.</p> <p>“Obviously we have to respect the jury’s verdict,” Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor James Scott told <em>Trenton Homicide Watch </em>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.”</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p><strong>Chambersburg slaying</strong></p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>“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.”</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> Sulaiman Abdur-RahmanWed, 31 May 2017 20:33:02 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2017/05/31/jury-dante-alexander-is-a-murderous-gunman-william-mitchell-is-not/Daquan DowlingBrandon Jammar Fletcher NanceDante AlexanderTrooper: No fingerprints of alleged drive-by shooter William Mitchell were found inside vehiclehttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2017/05/17/trooper-no-fingerprints-of-alleged-drive-by-shooter-william-mitchell-were-found-inside-vehicle/<p>A high-ranking New Jersey State Police trooper testified Wednesday that no fingerprints of accused killer William Mitchell were found inside the vehicle that was allegedly used in the 2012 drive-by shooting that killed 23-year-old Daquan Dowling.</p> <p>When questioned under cross-examination on whether any of Mitchell’s fingerprints were found inside the stolen black Chrysler Sebring, Lt. Michael McCormick said, “No, sir.”</p> <p>Mitchell, 29, is one of the five people to be indicted in connection with the slaying of Dowling. Another defendant in the case, Andre Romero, 25, was found not guilty last October of all charges. <span id="more-5601"></span></p> <p>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.</p> <p>Mitchell is being retried on murder charges and weapons offenses because his initial trial last year ended in a hung jury. In that initial trial, Marks and Square testified as cooperating witnesses against Mitchell and Romero.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4928" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell-240x300.jpg" alt="William &quot;Bill Bill&quot; Mitchell" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">William "Bill Bill" Mitchell</p> <p>Marks and Square have not yet been sentenced for their guilt in the case, while Alvardo received a four-year prison sentence for admitting he had received the stolen Chrysler Sebring that was later connected to the drive-by shooting.</p> <p>In his testimony on Wednesday, McCormick said police found Alvardo’s fingerprints on the trunk area of the Chrysler.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Mitchell’s murder retrial is scheduled to resume Thursday before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi.</p> Sulaiman Abdur-RahmanWed, 17 May 2017 15:37:01 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2017/05/17/trooper-no-fingerprints-of-alleged-drive-by-shooter-william-mitchell-were-found-inside-vehicle/Daquan DowlingWilliam Mitchell’s murder retrial approaches in drive-by slaying of Daquan Dowlinghttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2017/05/01/william-mitchells-murder-retrial-approaches-in-drive-by-slaying-of-daquan-dowling/<a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-4928" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg" alt="William &quot;Bill Bill&quot; Mitchell" width="480" height="600" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg 480w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell-240x300.jpg 240w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">William "Bill Bill" Mitchell</p> <p>One of the city men accused of murdering 23-year-old Daquan Dowling in a brazen 2012 drive-by shooting along Route 29 is about to be retried in a court of law.</p> <p>William Mitchell’s second murder trial is scheduled to begin Thursday before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi. His initial trial ended last October in a hung jury.</p> <p>Dowling was driving on Route 29 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.</p> <p>Mitchell, 29, is one of the five people to be indicted in connection with the slaying of Dowling. Another defendant in the case, Andre Romero, 25, was found not guilty last October of all charges.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>In the initial trial, Marks and Square testified as cooperating witnesses against Mitchell and Romero. Marks and Square have not yet been sentenced for their guilt in the case, while Alvardo received a four-year prison sentence for admitting he had received the stolen Chrysler Sebring that was later connected to the drive-by shooting.</p> <p>As Mitchell awaits retrial, he remains incarcerated at the Mercer County Correction Center on $1 million cash bail. Defense attorney Mark Fury is representing Mitchell; Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor James Scott is trying the case on behalf of the state.</p> Sulaiman Abdur-RahmanMon, 01 May 2017 19:54:22 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2017/05/01/william-mitchells-murder-retrial-approaches-in-drive-by-slaying-of-daquan-dowling/Daquan DowlingJury acquits one, hangs on other in Route 29 slay casehttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/27/jury-acquits-one-hangs-on-other-in-route-29-slay-case/<p>Andre “Ceto” Romero was a friend of Daquan Dowling, the man shot to death four years ago in a drive-by along a busy capital city highway.</p> <p>As kids, they played at parks together. They went swimming. They ate together. They had sleepovers at Dowling’s mother’s home in Trenton.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4918" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero-240x300.jpg" alt="Andre Romero" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Andre Romero</p> <p>“I raised that boy with my son,” said Saundra Dowling, Daquan’s mother. “In the beginning, I said ‘Ceto’ didn’t do it.”</p> <p>In the end, the jury, after deliberating for roughly six hours, decided “Ceto” didn’t do it, either – a “disgusting” decision that caused Dowling’s relatives to lose faith in the jury system.</p> <p>Dowling was struck in the head and killed instantly, on Jan. 30, 2012, as he drove along Route 29 in Trenton with passenger Morris Satchel.</p> <p>“I know if they could get away with murder, I know I could,” said Samaijah Edwards, Dowling’s sister.<span id="more-4939"></span></p> <p>Dowling’s mother said Assistant Prosecutor James Scott “had everything down pat,” seamlessly weaving more than 100 pieces of evidence for jurors.</p> <p>And they still came back deadlocked on whether suspected triggerman William “Bill Bill” Mitchell fired the fatal shot from a .357 handgun, strewn along the escape path on the highway.</p> <p>Saundra Dowling didn’t shed a tear as the verdict was read, consoling devastated family members.</p> <p><a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling1.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-18 alignleft" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling1.jpg" alt="Daquan Dowling" width="78" height="136" /></a>“Justice wasn’t served today,” she told The Trentonian. “What God has in store for murderers is so overwhelming.”</p> <p>Scott had the difficult task of meeting with the family after the verdict.</p> <p>“You always tell the family when you go to trial any result is possible,” he said. “Any attorney who says you have a slam dunk case hasn’t tried enough cases. But I would say pretty much everyone in that courtroom was surprised at that result.”</p> <p>The biggest surprise, perhaps, was that the jury nearly sent Mitchell home. He’ll be retried instead.</p> <p>A juror who did not want to give his name said nine people believed Mitchell was not guilty, a single person thought he did it and two were undecided.</p> <p>Jurors were hung up on state cooperators Jamar Square and Anthony Marks, who testified they were inside a stolen Chrsyler Sebring when Mitchell and Romero riddled Dowling’s white Ford Taurus with bullets.</p> <p>While they were initially charged with murder, the men reached plea deal with prosecutors to admit to gun charges.</p> <p>Marks was given a 10-year deal, while Square, who was described by a defense attorney as a “one-man crime wave,” testified he hoped he doesn’t go to prison when he’s sentenced.</p> <p>Marks told jurors that when Mitchell announced he was going to light up the car, he told him not to do it on the busy highway, in the middle of rush hour traffic.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4917" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks-240x300.jpg" alt="Anthony Marks" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Anthony Marks</p> <p>Square didn’t come across well on the stand, never admitting he knew guns were in the car. He also distanced himself from a Jamaican wig he used to put on a performance for “some females” outside of a city bodega prior to getting picked up by Marks and Co.</p> <p>A similar Jamaican wig was apparently worn by Mitchell during the murder, and discovered along the men’s escape route.</p> <p>The two cooperators also gave different nicknames of the person Mitchell and Romero were targeting in a East Trenton-South Trenton feud that flared up when Romero’s sister got jumped.</p> <p>Square claimed the men were after “Old Boy from South Trenton,” Marks saying it was “Poopie.”</p> <p>Christopher Campbell, Mitchell’s attorney, said the “two cooperating witnesses’ stories were completely inconsistent in many, many ways, even without that ‘false in one, false in all’ charge.”</p> <p>The juror didn’t buy a word of it.</p> <p>“They had something to gain from their testimony and their prior run-ins with the law,” the juror said.</p> <p>Saundra Dowling blasted the decision to give the two men deals to cooperate against Mitchell and Romero, saying their “lies” on the stand confused the jury and made it hard for them to convict Mitchell and too easy for them to acquit Romero.</p> <p>“Four friends. Four dummies. And four murderers,” she said. “And God has the last say so.”</p> <p>For Mitchell, the sticking point may have been a cell phone found lodged between the seat cushions of the stolen car.</p> <p>It had pictures of Mitchell, Romero and Marks partying and playing pool at Dave &amp; Busters.</p> <p>They jury couldn’t reconcile that, so one man walked, and another one talked.</p> <p>Mitchell didn’t hide his disgust with the jury after the verdict was announced.</p> <p>After his co-defendant was acquitted on all charges, multiple witnesses in the courtroom contend Mitchell shouted at Scott: “Ceto’s DNA was on the gun. This is crazy, man.”</p> <p>Dowling’s family members claimed Mitchell told Romero after the verdict he’d need protection on the streets.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4928" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell-240x300.jpg" alt="William &quot;Bill Bill&quot; Mitchell" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">William "Bill Bill" Mitchell</p> <p>Campbell was standing next to his client and said all he heard him say was, “Congratulations. You’re going home.”</p> <p>Not really.</p> <p>Romero still has the two less serious cases his attorney will look to resolve. He is being held on a combined bail of $100,000, as his family didn’t have money to spring him from jail following the verdict.</p> <p>Despite that, Romero and relatives were elated.</p> <p>Olga Romero, Andre’s aunt, said she was comforted by “the power of prayer” and the belief her nephew was innocent.</p> <p>“He’s not a saint, but he’s definitely not a murderer,” she said.</p> <p>The tall, gangly Romero draped his arms around his much-shorter attorney, Patrick O’Hara.</p> <p>O’Hara persuaded jurors to acquit his client by contending no physical evidence tied him to the stolen Sebring.</p> <p>O’Hara said it was as plausible car thief Louis Alvarado, whose DNA was found in the car that he admitted lifting outside the La Guira Bar, was the fourth person on the car.</p> <p>Despite claiming his client wasn’t in the car, O’Hara never pursued an alibi defense.</p> <p>He explained Romero didn’t know he was a suspect for more than a year after the murder, until he was indicted in March 2013.</p> <p>By that time, Romero couldn’t remember where he was the day of the murder, making such a defense a dodgy proposition.</p> <p>“An uncertain alibi is a death knell for a defendant,” O’Hara said. “You have to be rock-solid certain.”</p> <p>In the end, not going that route was his saving grace.</p> <p>“I’m crying on the inside,” Saundra Dowling said. “Everyone gets to walk free. How to get away with murder? You just seen a whole video on it.”</p> Isaac AviluceaThu, 27 Oct 2016 13:28:47 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/27/jury-acquits-one-hangs-on-other-in-route-29-slay-case/Daquan DowlingAttorneys for suspected Route 29 killers say 'squealers' are liarshttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/25/attorneys-for-suspected-route-29-killers-say-squealers-are-liars/<p>An attorney for one of the Route 29 murder suspects played the old switcheroo in his closing argument to jurors Tuesday, pinning the crime on a man who admitted lifting the car used in the drive-by slay.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4918" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero-240x300.jpg" alt="Andre Romero" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Andre Romero</p> <p>Defense attorney Patrick O’Hara said prosecutors didn’t have physical evidence showing his client Andre Romero was inside a stolen Chrysler Sebring on Jan. 30, 2012.</p> <p>However, there was plenty of car thief Louis Alvarado’s DNA inside the car – a fingerprint on the outside of the vehicle and a cigarette butt with his saliva on it – that detectives simply “turned their backs” on.</p> <p>“What links my client, for sure, with that car? There's more evidence this guy was there,” O’Hara said, fingering his pen toward Alvarado’s name on an easel.<span id="more-4931"></span></p> <p>O’Hara disputed that Romero, charged with murder along with suspected killer William “Bill Bill” Mitchell, ever opened fire on a white Ford Taurus driven by slay victim Daquan Dowling.</p> <p>Mitchell and Romero sat silently in the courtroom as the prosecutor looked to deliver the kill shot that could send them to prison for life.</p> <p>In a dramatic twist, after Assistant Prosecutor James Scott finished stacking up the “overwhelming evidence” against the two defendants, he pointed to them in the courtroom – Romero seated behind Mitchell – and told jurors they were similarly seated when they riddled Dowling’s car with bullets.</p> <p>Mitchell was riding shotgun, Romero right behind him on the passenger’s side,when Mitchell announced he was going to “tear up the car.” They fired five times in three seconds, four shots striking the driver’s side, Scott said.</p> <p>“That's purpose to kill the driver,” he said. “Mitchell thought, ‘Maybe I got away with this.’ No he didn't get away with this.”</p> <p>Defense attorneys slammed state cooperators Anthony Marks and Jamar Square, who reached plea deals to testify that they saw Mitchell and Romero open fire on Dowling’s car along Route 29 in Trenton, as “two squealers”  who colluded to make up a story in order to get out from underneath a murder rap.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4917" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks-240x300.jpg" alt="Anthony Marks" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Anthony Marks</p> <p>Christopher Campbell, Mitchell's attorney, told jurors the pair’s testimony was a “ridiculous story they cooked up while smoking weed and shooting the breeze” after the fatal shooting.</p> <p>“It boils down to the word of Mr. Marks and Mr. Square,” he said. “Here's the rub. How do we sort out the liars?"</p> <p>While he said this wasn’t a murder, because the suspected killers didn’t intend to kill anyone, Campbell conceded it might be manslaughter.</p> <p>Dowling was an unintended victim caught up in the crossfire of a brewing feud between East and South Trenton that escalated after someone from the southside crew jumped Romero’s sister, Marks testified.</p> <p>Scott called the apparent beef “ridiculous” and showed a gruesome photo of the bloodied murder victim with a hole in his head, slumped over the center console.</p> <p>Dowling’s family members gasped as the photo was shown on the overheard and wailed loudly as a sheriff offered tissues to them.</p> <p>The shrieks from the grieving family didn’t shake Scott who said ballistics and a .357 bullet recovered from Dowling’s skull proves Mitchell fired the fatal shot.</p> <p>But he saidRomero was just as responsible for the murder because he fired first. His lone shot could have just as easily struck Dowling in the head if it hadn’t been absorbed by the car frame.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-9" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg" alt="Murder victim Daquan Dowling" width="78" height="136" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Murder victim Daquan Dowling</p> <p>Romero was thwarted from exacting revenge on an apparent South Trenton rival known only by the names “Old Boy” and “Poopie” after his gun jammed – or “stove piped,” in the words of a ballistics expert who testified at trial.</p> <p>Urging jurors to drive a wedge between his client and Mitchell’s culpability, O'Hara said prosecutors tried to make Romero guilty of murder by association.</p> <p>During the trial, Scott showed photos of good friends Marks, Mitchell and Romero partying and shooting pool at Dave &amp; Busters.</p> <p>“The state took the people had extreme self-interests and is basing a case against my client,” he said. “Just because you’re in photographs with your friends doesn't make you a murderer.”</p> <p>Along with three guns and a Jamaican wig that was strewn along the escape path, authorities found Mitchell’s phone lodged in the car seat cushions of the crashed, abandoned Sebring, prosecutors said.</p> <p>An FBI expert analyzed the Samsung Galaxy, the apparent “case cracker,” and found it contained 218 photographs.</p> <p>Scott showed jurors photos from the phone of Mitchell in the delivery room when his baby was born and others of him with Romero and Marks.</p> <p>He swept aside Campbell’s claim that it may not have been his client’s phone since there were no “selfies” on it.</p> <p>Defense attorneys hammered Marks and Square, pointing out their inconsistencies on the stand.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4928" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell-240x300.jpg" alt="William &quot;Bill Bill&quot; Mitchell" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/WilliamMitchell.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">William "Bill Bill" Mitchell</p> <p>Square testified he didn’t know there were guns in the car after he got a ride from Marks when his tire caught a flat earlier in the day.</p> <p>Marks said he was with Mitchell and Romero when he scooped Square at a city bodega. They went to Mitchell’s home to pick up guns prior to heading toward a liquor store in South Trenton.</p> <p>In one last-ditch attempt to deflect blame from his client, Campbell said that while Square went out his way to distance himself from a gun and the murder by running away to Virginia, he couldn’t get away from a fake Jamaican wig.</p> <p>Square said he wore a similar dreadlocked wig when he put on a show for “some females” outside the bodega, though he claimed he gave it back.</p> <p>Marks said Mitchell wore the Rastafarian wig when the gunshots rang out.</p> <p>“It appeared magically in the car and it was on Mitchell's head?” Campbell said.</p> Isaac AviluceaTue, 25 Oct 2016 16:04:15 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/25/attorneys-for-suspected-route-29-killers-say-squealers-are-liars/Daquan DowlingJudge tosses charges against suspected Route 29 killershttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/21/judge-tosses-charges-against-suspected-route-29-killers/<p>Well, they didn’t know the car was stolen.</p> <p>That’s the most that can be said at this point for William “Bill Bill” Mitchell and Andre Romero, the suspected Route 29 killers on trial for allegedly shooting 23-year-old Daquan Dowling to death while they motored down the highway in Trenton in January 2012.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4918" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero-240x300.jpg" alt="Andre Romero" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Andre Romero</p> <p>A judge dismissed counts of receiving stolen property against each man, after prosecutors conceded there was not enough evidence that they knew they were rolling around in a stolen Chrysler Sebring the day of the Jan. 30, 2012 murder.</p> <p>The car was lifted outside a troubled Trenton bar by a man named Louis Alvarado, who later pleaded guilty to as much. He turned over the keys to Anthony Marks, one of four men originally charged with the murder of Dowling.<span id="more-4922"></span></p> <p>The two suspected killers still face serious charges of murder and weapons offenses, which could send them away for life.</p> <p>And prosecutors said they believe Mitchell fired the fatal shot, which struck Dowling in the head and killed him instantly. Assistant Prosecutor James Scott based that on ballistics at the scene and a detective’s testimony at trial.</p> <p>Scott said Romero’s lone slug was stopped by the car frame, otherwise it would have potentially been a kill shot. He said save for his gun jamming, nothing would have stopped Romero.</p> <p>That notwithstanding, attorneys for both men asked Judge Anthony Massi for a directed verdict on the remaining counts. Massi is expected to issue an order sometime Friday.</p> <p>But as defense attorneys Patrick O’Hara and Christopher Campbell know, getting murder and weapons charges dismissed against their clients at this late stage is a long shot.</p> <p>Campbell said it was pure speculation, unsupported by evidence, that Mitchell filed the fatal shot.</p> <p>O’Hara, Romero’s attorney, asked the judge to charge the jury on lesser included counts of manslaughter and aggravated assault – even though Dowling died.</p> <p>He said testimony supported the lesser charge of aggravated assault, because the jury could infer the alleged shooters didn’t plant to kill anyone and intended to “frighten the driver.”</p> <p>“This was a spur-of-the moment thing,” O’Hara said. “And it wasn’t perfect.”</p> <p>The judge didn’t go along with it, after hearing from two men who were in the car with Mitchell and Romero.</p> <p>They told jurors they saw the men open fire on a white Ford Taurus carrying Dowling and passenger Morris Satchel, an apparent rival known on the streets as “Poopie.”</p> <p>Getaway drive Marks, who copped a 10-year plea for weapons offenses for his role in the fatal shooting, testified this week that Mitchell said he was going to “tear the car” up after they visited Mitchell’s home and picked up a cache of guns – two .357 handguns and a .45-caliber.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4917" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks-240x300.jpg" alt="Anthony Marks" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Anthony Marks</p> <p>Jamar Square, who was also in the car at the time of the shooting, also pleaded guilty to weapons charges and is hoping he doesn’t go to prison when he is sentenced after the trial.</p> <p>He maintained he didn’t know guns were in the car and told jurors he was simply getting a ride from family friend Marks after his car got a flat tire. Marks picked him up outside a city bodega after he put on a reggae show for “some females,” he said.</p> <p>Square claimed that moments before the shooting, as they were motoring toward Route 29, Mitchell and Romero noticed the white Taraus – a car they believed belonged to “Old Boy from South Trenton.”</p> <p>Square said the men talked in code prior to riddling it with bullets.</p> <p>Marks claimed the suspected killers recognized the car as belonging to “Poopie.” He didn’t know Poopie’s real name, but <em>The Trentonian</em> found a comment under Satchel’s obituary that referred to him as Poopie.</p> <p>The apparent shooting was retaliation after Romero’s sister got jumped, Marks said.</p> <p>Satchel survived the Route 29 shooting, and ensuing car crash, which closed down the highway overnight. But he died months later in an unrelated ATV accident.</p> <p>Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday.</p> Isaac AviluceaFri, 21 Oct 2016 12:42:07 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/21/judge-tosses-charges-against-suspected-route-29-killers/Daquan DowlingDefense attorney to getaway driver: 'You didn't hit the brake'http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/19/defense-attorney-to-getaway-driver-you-didnt-hit-the-brake/<p>Getaway driver Anthony Marks said Thursday at the murder trial of two friends that he warned one of the suspected killers not to pull the trigger as they drove down the highway in the capital city four years ago.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-9" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg" alt="Murder victim Daquan Dowling" width="78" height="136" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Murder victim Daquan Dowling</p> <p>Marks said that when best friend William “Bill Bill” Mitchell announced to the car he planned to light up a white Ford Taurus carrying a rival along Route 29, Marks responded: “No don’t do it. Not right here.”</p> <p>Mitchell did it anyway, Marks said, after his co-defendant, Andre Romero, opened fire first that fateful day in January 2012.</p> <p>Twenty-three-year-old Daquan Dowling was struck in the head in a hail of bullets, while the suspected killers gunned for his passenger, Morris Satchel.<span id="more-4914"></span></p> <p>Wearing a black shirt, his head shaven and a long, scruffy beard hanging off his face, the illiterate Marks, 28, who admitted he can’t read, at times sounded like he was on auto-pilot when he testified against his friends, who are being tried together.</p> <p>Security was tight inside the packed courtroom, which was tense throughout Marks’ day on the stand. His testimony was interrupted when a woman in the gallery called another spectator a “b----.”</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4917" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks-240x300.jpg" alt="Anthony Marks" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Anthony-Marks.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Anthony Marks</p> <p>Sheriffs escorted five people out of the courtroom, and warned others additional outbursts would result in people being taken out in handcuffs.</p> <p>Initially charged with murder along with the men he now pointed the finger at, Marks pleaded guilty to a pair of handgun charges under a plea deal with prosecutors.</p> <p>He agreed to testify “truthfully” against Mitchell and Romero, whom he knew by the street name “Ceto,” in exchange for a sentence of 10 years in prison. He has to do six years before he’s up for parole.</p> <p>For some time, Marks tried insulating Mitchell from the murder charge.</p> <p>Marks, Mitchell and Romero were friends, after all.</p> <p>Marks told jurors he knew Mitchell since they were teenagers growing up in East Trenton.</p> <p>He had also been over to the home of Romero’s mother, befriending him around 2011.</p> <p>Assistant Prosecutor James Scott showed pictures of the three men together, taken with Mitchell’s cell phone, which was discovered inside the stolen and crashed Chrysler Sebring used in the January 2012 murder.</p> <p>The photos showed the men in happier times, partying with drinks in their hands. They were also shown shooting pool and hoops together at Dave &amp; Busters.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4918" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero-240x300.jpg" alt="Andre Romero" width="240" height="300" srcset="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero-240x300.jpg 240w, http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2016/10/Andre-Romero.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Andre Romero</p> <p>But after the Dowling was shot, Marks and Mitchell lost their phones in the mad dash to get away from the murder scene, scaling the wall of the William Trent House.</p> <p>Marks admitted he and Mitchell discussed that, if they were questioned by police, they’d say they were robbed of their phones and that’s why they were found at the murder scene.</p> <p>But after the men were charged, Marks flipped on his best friend out of self-preservation and because Mitchell didn’t want to own up to the killing.</p> <p>“I was being crossed,” Marks said. “He [said he] was gonna take the charge. He didn’t take it. I pleaded guilty to what I did.”</p> <p>Marks said firmly he didn’t kill Dowling, who was shot in the head while driving with Satchel in a white Ford Taurus along Route 29  on Jan. 30, 2012.</p> <p>Dowling was an unintended victim in a brewing feud between rival factions in East and South Trenton.</p> <p>The “beef” escalated after Romero’s sister was jumped, Marks said.</p> <p>That day, Mitchell and Romero gunned for a man known only as “Poopie,” Marks said.</p> <p>Marks didn’t know Poopie’s real name, but a comment left under the obituary of Satchel, who died months later in an unrelated ATV accident, said, “RIP Poopie. Miss [you], bro.”</p> <p>Marks, who wore Carhartts and a red Chicago Bulls cap the day of the murder, said he got keys to the stolen Sebring from Louis Alvarado, who lifted it outside of La Guira Bar.</p> <p>Marks, Mitchell and Romero visited a deli, where they picked up Square.</p> <p>While smoking a joint in the car, they went to Mitchell’s home to get guns and later to get a bottle from a liquor store in South Trenton.</p> <p>Marks went inside his home and came back out with a black plastic bag, containing a .45-caliber. .357 snub-nosed and .357 Smith and Wesson.</p> <p>Marks’ testimony about the guns contradicted what Square told jurors Tuesday, when he denied knowing about the guns or handling them, despite pleading guilty to a gun charge.</p> <p>As the men rode out, “Bill Bill” was shotgun, Romero and Square in the backseat. Square was behind Marks, who was at the wheel.</p> <p>There wasn’t a plan to shoot up anyone, Marks said.</p> <p>The guns were for “in case we got into any trouble. There’s a lot of beef that goes on,” Marks said.</p> <p>But as Marks described how everything unfolded, it appeared Mitchell allegedly sought out beef when he and Romero saw a car they recognized as Poopie’s near Lamberton Liquors.</p> <p>He told Marks to follow behind.</p> <p>Marks make a U-turn and got behind the car at a red light, prior to getting on Route 29.</p> <p>That decision, defense attorney Patrick O’Hara surmised on cross examination, made Marks complicit in murder.</p> <p>“I ain’t pull the trigger,” Marks said.</p> <p>“But you didn’t hit the brake, either,” O’Hara said.</p> Isaac AviluceaWed, 19 Oct 2016 16:23:24 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/19/defense-attorney-to-getaway-driver-you-didnt-hit-the-brake/Daquan DowlingDefense attorneys contend Lawrence man is prosecutors' pet in Route 29 slayhttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/18/defense-attorneys-contend-lawrence-man-is-prosecutors-pet-in-route-29-slay/<p>Hours before a city man was gunned down in a cold blood as he drove unsuspectingly along a busy Trenton highway, Jamar Square was putting on a little reggae show for “some females” outside of a bodega.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-9" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg" alt="Murder victim Daquan Dowling" width="78" height="136" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Murder victim Daquan Dowling</p> <p>He did the whole Damian Marley-like song and dance, even donning a stitch cap with long, fake dreadlocks.</p> <p>“You know how to put on a show and make sure people are paying attention and you’re playing what they want to hear?” defense attorney Christopher Campbell asked Square on Tuesday, at the murder trial of two city men.</p> <p>“I try,” he said.<span id="more-4911"></span></p> <p>After the self-proclaimed rapper and entertainer was finished, he handed the fake dreads back to the women and went inside to pick up his chicken cheesesteak, French fries and drink.</p> <p>When he came back out, he spotted family friend Anthony Marks, behind the wheel of a black Chrysler Sebring. He asked for a ride, offering to give Marks gas money.</p> <p>Square’s car “caught a flat” earlier the day of Jan. 30, 2012, on North Clinton and Olden avenues, right as he headed back into the capital city after his sociology class at Mercer County Community College let out sometime after 3 p.m. He then visited a female classmate for about an hour prior to making a pit stop at the bodega.</p> <p>Square, a 23-year-old man from Lawrence, said Marks agreed to give him a hitch and told him since they were cool he didn’t need to pay him.</p> <p>But as the men set off through the city streets, hot-boxing what turned out to be a stolen Sebring as they took turns hitting a marijuana joint, something horrible happened, Square said.</p> <p>Suspected killers Andre Romero and William “Bill Bill” Mitchell opened fire on a vehicle as they motored down Route 29, Square said.</p> <p>He said Mitchell announced to the car he recognized one of the occupants, through dark tinted windows, as “Old Boy from South Trenton.”</p> <p>Romero agreed.</p> <p>Then, Square said, the men said, “I’m about to blast him.”</p> <p>“They’re firing shots while I’m ducking for cover in my seat,” he said. “The car spins in a 360. Once the car stops, I took off running for my life.”</p> <p>In the hail of gunfire, a bullet struck 23-year-old Daquan Dowling in the head, killing him instantly, as passenger Morris Satchel struggled to regain control of the careening car.</p> <p>Yeah, sure, defense attorneys said about Square’s allegations.</p> <p>They shrugged it off his claims as lies from an admitted “mediocre musician” and gifted former point guard who dished it on others when he found himself trapped by prosecutors’ mounting full-court press.</p> <p>“Are you putting on a show today for us?” Campbell charged.</p> <p>“No,” Square responded.</p> <p>“’Cause you retired?” Campbell said. “You’re not doing it anymore.”</p> <p>Defense attorney Patrick O’Hara, Romero’s attorney, referred to Square during cross examination as a “one-man crime wave.”</p> <p>Square was initially charged with murder along with Romero, Mitchell and Marks.</p> <p>A grand jury ended up only indicting him on gun charges.</p> <p>Square had also caught charges in three other cases. He faced counts of robbery, terroristic threats, burglary and theft in those cases – for allegedly holding up residents in his hometown of Lawrence and also targeting College of New Jersey students.</p> <p>O’Hara scrawled the word “murder,” along with other charges, in big bold letters on an oversized notepad inside the courtroom, stacking up the combined potential century he faced behind bars on those charges, if they ran consecutively, and if he didn’t help prosecutors by cooperating against Romero and Mitchell.</p> <p>Square, who struck a deal that could land up with him getting little as five years in prison, referred to his baggage as “stuff in the past,” promising he’s changed.</p> <p>Square admitted he hopes by him telling the “truth,” he can avoid prison altogether.</p> <p>O’Hara charged that Square did “whatever he needed” to do to get out from underneath a murder rap, even if it meant fitting his Square peg testimony into the round hole in prosecutors’ case.</p> <p>Square let as much slip out in November 2012, when he sat down to give a statement to prosecutors.</p> <p>Square was asked during the proffer session whether Marks, known as “Ant,” had a gun the day of the murder. He responded that Marks wasn’t armed, but added “but the prosecutor said,” before a detective cut him off.</p> <p>O’Hara suggested Square is prosecutors’ pet, a parrot who would repeat whatever he was told to say.</p> <p>“You were going to tell Detective [Gary] Britton that the prosecutor told [you] he had a gun,” O’Hara said.</p> <p>The defense attorney pointed out he didn’t know his client by name, only his nickname, finding out Romero’s government name from detectives.</p> <p>Assistant Prosecutor James Scott tried to humanize Square during direct examination earlier in the day, hoping the jury will believe his testimony if they know more about past and future.</p> <p>Square said he has moved on from his checkered past. He resumed business classes and works a hotel desk job to put himself through college.</p> <p>He is working toward an associate’s degree and hopes to get his master’s one day.</p> <p>Square told jurors he saw Mitchell around Trenton prior to the murder, though they weren’t close.</p> <p>Recapping his day in 2012, he explained that after getting a flat tire he called up his cousin for a ride.</p> <p>His cousin worked late but would connect with him later to help him fix the tire.</p> <p>Looking to kill time, Square walked to a bodega and ordered food. He chatted up a group of women outside, putting on a performance to woo one of them.</p> <p>One woman handed him a fake Jamaican wig – one eerily similar to an abandoned dreadlock wig found near the William Trent house, where the four men fled toward after the murder.</p> <p>Square claimed he gave the wig back.</p> <p>“Never seen where that wig went,” he said.</p> <p>Square said he sat with Romero in the back seat, directly behind Marks, on the driver’s side, gobbling down his cheesesteak and stashing a gray hat in the seatback pocket as they drove up St. Joes Avenue.</p> <p>He retraced the car’s path for jurors, as they passed the train station on South Clinton Avenue.</p> <p>While heading toward Route 29, a car with dark tinted windows cut them off, Square said.</p> <p>Mitchell and Romero recognized the driver as “Old Boy.”</p> <p>“They were talking in codes,” Square said.</p> <p>The alleged shooters riddled the car with bullets, crashed and all four men abandoned the car.</p> <p>Square insisted he never handled any of the guns, though he pleaded guilty to a weapon charge under the state’s constructive possession laws, which meant he had access to and could have used one of the weapons.</p> <p>Afterward, Square said, Mitchell and Romero threatened him.</p> <p>“If you tell, we gonna kill you,” he said.</p> <p>Square said he gave a woman he knew gas money to give him a ride home, later skipping town for Virginia.</p> <p>“I was scared for my life,” he said.</p> Isaac AviluceaTue, 18 Oct 2016 18:29:31 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/18/defense-attorneys-contend-lawrence-man-is-prosecutors-pet-in-route-29-slay/Daquan DowlingAttorneys for suspected Route 29 killers play blame gamehttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/13/attorneys-for-suspected-route-29-killers-play-blame-game/<p>Unfurling their blame-shifting strategy, attorneys for two city men accused of killing another man during a Route 29 drive-by shooting four years ago asked a retired Trenton Police detective about boundless possibilities, suggesting cops overlooked other more likely suspects.</p> <p>In his classic cynical style, patented and perfected over his more than two decades in law enforcement, a nonplussed Gary Britton conceded little when he testified Thursday, sometimes belittling attorneys with remarks as condescending as the questions they asked.</p> <p>For example, he quipped he couldn’t answer an inquiry from the attorney for suspected killer Andre Romero because he wasn’t a smoker.</p> <p>The retired Trenton Police detective, who spent 24 years on the force and loosely dubbed parts of his job as “victimology,” wasn’t buying the smoke-and-mirrors tactics employed by attorneys for Romero and William “Bill Bill” Mitchell, who is being tried alongside his co-defendant, as they looked to pin the crime on someone else.<span id="more-4891"></span></p> <p>The pair is accused of opening fire on a white Ford Taurus driven by 23-year-old Daquan Dowling, as he and another man, Morris Satchel, rode leisurely in the slow lane of Route 29 around dusk of Jan. 30, 2012.</p> <p>After pulling up in a stolen Chrysler Sebring and allegedly riddling the car with bullets – apparently intended for Satchel – and striking Dowling in the head, killing him instantly, Romero, Mitchell and two others abandoned the crashed car on the highway and fled toward the William Trent House, leaving a trail of evidence in their wake, prosecutors said.</p> <p>The evidence included guns, a fake Jamaican wig and cell phones, said Britton, who was assigned to the county’s homicide task force at the time and testified about how his investigation led him all the way to Virginia.</p> <p>Prosecutors played clips capturing the two vehicles near the Market Street exit, as Britton pointed out for jurors specks of light he said were muzzle flashes from the gunshots. Four people were also captured bailing out of the stolen car, as the retired detective used a laser to point them out for the jury.</p> <p>Britton also testified how he was familiar with Mitchell and had learned his nickname, “Bill Bill,” while investigating the unrelated 2007 murder of Bloods gang member Arnold Poole, a popular figure who was gunned down after a fashion show.</p> <p>Mitchell was apparently friends with Poole, Britton said.</p> <p>Britton said that it had been a particularly gory week in Trenton prior to the sensational Route 29 murder, apparently targeting Satchel, who later died in an ATV accident.</p> <p>“Every single night we tried to sit down and have a meal we were interrupted by someone being shot,” Britton said.</p> <p>The highway carnage forced authorities to close the highway overnight, outraging commuters driving home during rush-hour traffic and even leading to a phone call from an upset Gov. Chris Christie, Britton said.</p> <p>Britton said as he and other detectives looked for leads on the murder, they received information from State Police’s Regional Operations Intelligence Center, known to detectives as Rock, about where to get surveillance that might help them identify suspects.</p> <p>They obtained some footage from a bridge commission surveillance system, which captured parts of the incident, and helped authorities identify the suspects’ vehicle.</p> <p>The Sebring had been reported stolen by a city woman. Louis Alvarado, a man who defense attorneys pointed to as a possible murder suspect, pleaded guilty in 2014 to lifting the vehicle from outside La Guira Bar.</p> <p>He was never charged for having any role in Dowling’s murder, but defense attorneys focused on him nonetheless while cross examining Britton.</p> <p>Patrick O’Hara, Romero’s attorney, noted Alvarado was uncooperative during the investigation, because his fingerprints were all over the stolen vehicle and he had been implicated in the murder.</p> <p>Authorities also found cigarette butts on scene with Alvarado’s DNA.</p> <p>No matter how detectives pressed, Alvarado seemed to “care less” about whether he was charged with murder, O’Hara said.</p> <p>“There was a lot of things you could say about Alvarado,” Britton said. “That’s probably one of them.”</p> <p>O’Hara also pointed to a Chicago Bulls cap recovered on scene that came back with DNA belonging to Anthony Marks, one of the four men in the stolen Sebring.</p> <p>Marks, the driver, pleaded guilty to lesser gun charges as part of a 10-year plea deal with prosecutors.</p> Isaac AviluceaThu, 13 Oct 2016 19:17:34 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/13/attorneys-for-suspected-route-29-killers-play-blame-game/Daquan DowlingDAG heard shuffling behind city museum after Route 29 murderhttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/05/dag-heard-shuffling-behind-city-museum-after-route-29-murder/<p>Former Deputy Attorney General Ellen Balint testified Wednesday in the murder trial of two city men that while she was walking from the Hughes Justice Complex toward her car after getting out of work on the evening of Jan. 30, 2012 she was startled by the cackle of gunfire and screeching tires.</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-9" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg" alt="Murder victim Daquan Dowling" width="78" height="136" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Murder victim Daquan Dowling</p> <p>She didn’t know it at the time, but 23-year-old Daquan Dowling had just been shot in the head as he and a friend motored northbound in the slow lane of Route 29, in a callous drive-by execution that shut down the busy highway for hours, prosecutors said.</p> <p>Dowling slumped over the car console, his bloodied head landing in the lap of his shell-shocked passenger.</p> <p>Prosecutors showed photos of the blood-soaked interior of Dowling's Ford Taurus. And a supervising sergeant from the Trenton Police department held up for jurors to inspect the apparent blood-spattered shirt and sweater of Dowling's friend, who was riding shotgun when the horror unfolded.<span id="more-4851"></span></p> <p>Balint testified that she was initially confused when she heard a single loud pop around 6:30 p.m., right as the dark of winter settled on the capital city.</p> <p>“I thought it was a blown tire,” she said.</p> <p>That was followed by a succession of three more shots. Only then she realized, “That sounds more like a gun. You're not gonna have that many blowouts at once.”</p> <p>What followed, described by prosecutors’ in opening statements last week as pure “mayhem,” was the sounds of doors slamming, people yelling and cars crashing, Balint said.</p> <p>“I was like, ‘Wow, what's going on?’” she said.</p> <p>Prosecutors said what was going on was a cold-blooded execution by suspected killers Andre Romero and William “Bill Bill” Mitchell, who riddled Dowling’s car with bullets as they drove by in stolen Chrysler Sebring.</p> <p>The Sebring, which was owned by a city woman who also testified Wednesday, had been lifted from outside of crime-riddled La Guira bar at the intersection of Poplar Street and North Clinton Avenue.</p> <p>Balint, who worked for the state Attorney General’s Office for 16 years, was the first witness put on the stand who caught a glimpse of the suspected killers, though she didn’t know that at the time.</p> <p>She normally parked in the underground garage of the massive Market Street justice complex. But on this day her car was in a visitors parking lot closest to the nearby William Trent House, where Mitchell, Romero and two others allegedly fled after lighting up Dowling’s car and bailing out of the crashed Sebring.</p> <p>Shortly after the shot rang out, Balint heard footsteps and “sharp and urgent” shouts from four men but she couldn’t make out the words.</p> <p>They scaled a brick wall of the museum that Balint estimated was about six feet tall. She said the men, whom she said appeared to be African American, all looked  about as tall as the wall or taller.</p> <p>She couldn’t make out faces and only clothes of two of four, who were dressed in Carhartt overalls and tan work boots, and another in a ball cap.</p> <p>Balint said she the men appeared to coming from the direction of Route 29, where the drive-by murder had occurred, and seemed in a rush.</p> <p>They hopped off the wall, picked up their pants, unruffled their jackets and walked down Warren Street, casually, so not to arouse suspicion, Balint said.</p> <p>Balint didn’t call the cops that night but spoke to detectives the next day, while they were still processing the crime scene. She told them all she knew, which she admitted wasn’t much.</p> <p>Balint may not have given prosecutors a vivid glimpse of the faces of the suspected killers.</p> <p>But they believe a trail of evidence leading from the highway to the Trent House – including bullet casings, abandoned guns, pieces of clothing and a phone apparently belonging to one of the suspects left inside the stolen car – is enough to send Romero and Mitchell away for life.</p> <p>They also expect to get a big boost from at least one of the two of the men who were in the car with Romero. They both struck plea deals and are expected to participate in the trial.</p> <p>An electronics expert from the FBI also took the stand and testified that he examined Mitchell’s phone.</p> <p>A parade of police officers was also brought into to discuss finer points of the investigation – from the autopsy that concluded Dowling’s death as a homicide to how Trenton Police processed the sprawling crime scene on a blustery night in the dead of winter.</p> <p>The trial resumes Thursday.</p> Isaac AviluceaWed, 05 Oct 2016 16:53:24 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/10/05/dag-heard-shuffling-behind-city-museum-after-route-29-murder/Daquan DowlingAccused killers caused 'mayhem' on Route 29http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/09/27/accused-killers-caused-mayhem-on-route-29/<p class="TXBody">A defense attorney for one of two suspects charged in the sensational Route 29 Statehouse slay in 2012 put on a “dog food” and pony show in court Tuesday.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Defense attorney Patrick O’Hara attacked prosecutors’ case against murder suspect Andre Romero in his opening statement, telling jurors that no matter how the state dresses it up, they’ll be left with “dog food.”</p> <a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-9" src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2012/02/Daquan-Dowling.jpg" alt="Murder victim Daquan Dowling" width="78" height="136" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Murder victim Daquan Dowling</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">“The state has two wonderful cooks,” O’Hara said. “The meal is only as good as the ingredients, and the main ingredient is dog food. You’re gonna wonder how they were ever chefs.”</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">O’Hara didn’t delve into specifics about why he says his client is innocent of committing the Jan. 30, 2012 murder, which closed down Route 29 for several hours.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">The adrenaline-crazed attorney stopped short of bringing a unicorn into the courtroom, to complete the dog food and pony show.<span id="more-4840"></span></p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Driven around in a stolen black Chrysler Sebring with its passenger-side windows down, co-defendant William “Bill Bill” Mitchell and Romero are accused of lighting up Daquan Dowling’s white Ford Taurus as it traveled northbound, in the slow lane, along Route 29 around dusk.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Mitchell was in the front passenger seat, Romero in the back, when they riddled the side of the Taurus with bullets, instantly killing Dowling after he was struck in the head, prosecutors said.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Assistant Prosecutor Bill Haumann said Dowling’s vehicle careened out of control and clipped the suspects’ Sebring as it paralleled it down the highway.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">“What erupted was nothing short of mayhem,” he said.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Two other men, Jamar Square and Anthony Marks, were inside the Sebring with the alleged shooters when gunfire erupted near the Statehouse.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">They accepted plea bargains to lesser charges and are expected to participate in the trial.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">After the collision caused them to spin out of control, the four men abandoned their car, leaving it in drive, and fled on foot – discarding guns and clothing along their escape route, Haumann said.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">In the hurried panic to get away, Mitchell forgot his cell phone under the seat, the prosecutor said.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">The driverless Sebring got turned around and, motoring southbound, crashed head-on into another driver.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">The Taurus continued northbound for a half-mile before slamming into yellow sand barrels near Memorial Drive.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">The suspects ran toward the William Trent House on Market Street, scaling a wall and leaving behind a gun, another cell phone and a hat with attached dreadlocks, Haumann said.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">The 23-year-old Dowling was left slumped over center console.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Prior to the shooting, the quartet stopped at Mitchell’s home in East Trenton, where they armed themselves with a cache of guns – a .357 Smith &amp; Wesson for Square; a .45-caliber for Romero and a snub-nosed, semi-automatic .357 magnum revolver for Mitchell, prosecutors said.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">They went to Lamberton Liquors on Cass Street in South Trenton.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">While they were in the parking lot, they spotted the Ford Taurus and began following it.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Prosecutors’ case is built on photos, surveillance and what people say happened.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">More than 90 people are on the witness list, but prosecutors expect to call a fraction of those people, including a State Police ballistics expert and someone from the FBI with electronics expertise.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Christopher Campbell, Mitchell’s attorney, urged jurors to take the position of “convince me.”</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">He believes the case will leave jurors wanting more to be firmly convinced his client was involved.</p> <p class="TXBody" style="text-indent: 0in;">Echoing as much, O’Hara added: “Just because they say it’s so doesn’t make it so. If they it’s so is it really so?”</p> Isaac AviluceaTue, 27 Sep 2016 16:31:48 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2016/09/27/accused-killers-caused-mayhem-on-route-29/Daquan DowlingMan pleads to lesser crimes instead of facing murder charge for 2012 drive-byhttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2015/08/08/man-pleads-to-lesser-crimes-instead-of-facing-murder-charge-for-2012-drive-by/<a href="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2015/08/anthony_marks.jpg"><img src="http://wordpress.homicidewatch.org/trenton/files/2015/08/anthony_marks.jpg" alt="Anthony Marks" width="201" height="251" class="size-full wp-image-3502" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Anthony Marks</p> <p>A man who was driving a stolen vehicle during a 2012 drive-by shooting on Route 29 that killed a city man had murder charges against him dismissed Friday when pleaded guilty to a pair of lesser counts.</p> <p><a href="http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/suspects/anthony-marks/">Anthony Marks</a>, 27, was charged with murder along with William Mitchell and Andre Romero in the slaying of 23-year-old <a href="http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/victims/daquan-dowling/">Daquan Dowling</a>, who was killed instantly after he was struck in the head by a bullet fired by alleged shooters Mitchell and Romero. <span id="more-3500"></span></p> <p>Under terms of a plea deal with prosecutors, Marks is expected to be sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to two lesser counts of handgun possession. His sentence for firearm possession would run concurrently with time Marks is currently serving in an unrelated drug case.</p> <p>Marks must serve at least six years in prison on the handgun charges before he is eligible for parole, according to terms of the deal put on the record by Assistant Prosecutor James Scott.</p> <p>Scott did not say during the proceeding whether Marks is required to testify against his codefendants as part of the plea deal.</p> <p>Marks agreed to the terms in pleading guilty before Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier.</p> <p>Marks did not admit to firing a shot Jan. 30, 2012, when gunfire erupted near the Statehouse resulting in the closure of Route 29 for several hours. But he admitted a .45-caliber handgun and a .357 Smith &#038; Wesson revolver, which he said were supplied by a fourth man, Jamar Square, were in the car he was driving and that he had access to them on the night in question.</p> <p>Neither Marks’ attorney, Andrew Ferencevych, nor the prosecutor, Scott, asked questions about Dowling’s murder during the plea.</p> <p>Mitchell and Romero are expected to be tried for Dowling’s murder, Ferencevych said. It was not immediately clear if a trial date has been set. Marks’ sentencing is set for Oct. 29.</p> Isaac AviluceaSat, 08 Aug 2015 01:55:05 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2015/08/08/man-pleads-to-lesser-crimes-instead-of-facing-murder-charge-for-2012-drive-by/Daquan DowlingAnthony MarksTrenton man pleads guilty to possession of stolen car used in drive-byhttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2014/07/11/trenton-man-pleads-guilty-to-possession-of-stolen-car-used-in-drive-by/<p>A drug convict on probation pleaded guilty today to possession of the stolen car used by others in a drive-by murder along Route 29 on Jan. 30, 2012.</p> <p>Luis Alvarado, 24, admitted in court that he was tooling around in the stolen black Chrysler Sebring in the hours before it was used to ambush <a href="http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/victims/daquan-dowling/" >Daquan Dowling</a> as he drove north along the highway between Cass Street and Memorial Drive.<br /> <span id="more-1834"></span></p> <p>In a plea deal worked out by defense lawyer Steve Slaven and Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Jim Scott, Alvarado pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and violating the probation from his drug conviction.</p> <p>Under the deal, he’ll be sentenced to four years in prison. Mercer Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier set sentencing for Sept. 10.</p> <p>Three other suspects are facing trial on murder charges for the drive-by slaying of Dowling, 23, who died after being shot in the head that night.</p> <p>Suspected gunman Andre Romero, 21, allegedly fired shots into Dowling’s car while a passenger in the stolen Chrysler that pulled up next to the victim’s car on northbound 29 just past Cass Street.</p> <p>Romero was joined on the passenger side of the Chrysler by William Mitchell, 25, who also allegedly fired into the Dowling car.</p> <p>Dowling’s front seat passenger had to duck bullets and flying glass as he steered the borrowed car into a crash along the Memorial Drive ramp leading into New Jersey’s government district.</p> Paul MickleFri, 11 Jul 2014 12:43:54 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2014/07/11/trenton-man-pleads-guilty-to-possession-of-stolen-car-used-in-drive-by/Daquan DowlingCity man arrested in January slayinghttp://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2012/06/15/city-man-arrested-in-january-slaying/<p>A city resident has been arrested in a drive-by killing that closed down Route 29 for more than 12 hours in January, police said Thursday.</p> <p><a href="http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/suspects/anthony-marks/" >Anthony Marks</a>, 24, was arrested late Wednesday in the slaying of 23-year-old <a href="http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/victims/daquan-dowling/" >Daquan Dowling</a>, who was driving near the Statehouse when his car was hit with gunfire. </p> <p>Sgt. Chris Doyle said Dowling, who was killed instantly, was an innocent victim and not the target of the shooting. The target was his passenger, who was the owner of the car, but the tinted windows on their vehicle prevented the shooters from seeing that Dowling was driving at the time. </p> <p>“We don’t believe Mr. Dowling was the target, but I don’t want to comment on any more about that,” Doyle said. </p> <p>William R. Mitchell, 24, who allegedly was in the car with Marks when the shots were fired, is being sought by police. Marks faces murder and other charges. The killing and investigation led to tie-ups that lasted through the morning rush hour, causing gridlock across the city.</p> Trentonian StaffFri, 15 Jun 2012 22:17:51 -0400http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2012/06/15/city-man-arrested-in-january-slaying/Daquan DowlingAnthony Marks"Trenton failed this kid."http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2012/02/01/trenton-failed-this-kid/<p>The <a href="http://www.trentonian.com/article/20120131/OPINION03/301319991&#038;pager=full_story" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.trentonian.com']);">Trentonian's L.A. Parker</a> writes about the death of <a href="http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/victims/daquan-dowling/" >Daquan Dowling</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Daquan Dowling, 23, is dancing with a Rolling Stones-created "Mr. D." after missing out on a potential life-saving experience with Emily Charter's "Mr. D." </p> <p>"I'm not going to turn this into some nice and happy event. We can't make this all warm and fuzzy," Dixon said. </p> <p>"Emily Fisher Charter School failed this kid. Trenton Central High School failed this kid. Trenton failed this kid. And his family failed this kid. Maybe I will see all of this differently at some other time. But right now, at this moment, all I see is failure." </p> <p>Dowling played basketball at both Fisher and Trenton High. Like many other city athletes, Dowling dabbled in education while playing basketball, then disappeared when the season ended. He ended up at Fisher. </p> <p>Dowling delivered an ultimate getaway Monday night when police said an assailant gunned down the 22-year-old man on a major highway. Mr. Dowling met "Mr. D." when a bullet shot through his brain.</p> </blockquote> Chris AmicoWed, 01 Feb 2012 22:28:22 -0500http://trenton.homicidewatch.org/2012/02/01/trenton-failed-this-kid/Daquan Dowling