Elvin Kimble | Homicide Watch Trenton

Co-defendants in Elvin Kimble homicide case receive prison time

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:21:56 -0400

Two men who played a role in the 2015 shooting death of 19-year-old Elvin Kimble have been sentenced to state prison after pleading guilty to downgraded criminal offenses.

Originally arrested on heavy murder charges, Gary Spears, 35, of Trenton, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter and has been sentenced to 10 years of incarceration while co-defendant Jermaine Johnson, 41, of Ewing, pleaded guilty to third-degree hindering prosecution and has been sentenced to five years behind bars.

Gary Spears (left) and Jermaine Johnson

Kimble suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the back during the early morning hours of Nov. 24, 2015. Prior to the shooting, Kimble was seen earlier in the night allegedly breaking into Johnson’s vehicle. Johnson gave chase and Kimble allegedly fired in his direction. Johnson then recruited the help of Spears to retaliate, and Spears fired the shot that ended Kimble’s life, according to statements prosecutors previously made in the case.

Elvin Kimble

On the date of the slaying, police about 12:40 a.m. responded to the area of Chestnut Avenue and Rusling Street on a report of shots fired and found evidence of a gunfight but no evidence of a homicide. Police later returned to that same area about 6:20 a.m. and then found Kimble’s dead body lying between a fence and a parked car in the city’s Chambersburg neighborhood.

The slain Kimble was reportedly wearing a ski mask and still had a gun in his hand when police found him slumped over near a van on the 700 block of Division Street.

The Mercer County Homicide Task Force and a U.S. Marshals regional task force arrested Spears and Johnson on Jan. 15, 2016, charging them with first-degree murder and weapons offenses in connection with the shooting death of Kimble.

Both men were being held at the Mercer County Correction Center on $1 million cash bail and got indicted in October 2016 on murder charges. If they had taken their case to trial and got convicted on first-degree murder, they would have been hit with 30 to 75 years in prison.

Rather than fight the charges in a court of law, Spears and Johnson admitted their roles in the grisly retaliation slaying of Kimble.

Spears confessed to being the triggerman responsible for Kimble’s death. He pleaded guilty to the downgraded charge of first-degree aggravated manslaughter on July 17 before Judge Robert Bingham II and had his other charges dismissed Sept. 15 after Bingham sentenced him to 10 years of incarceration.

Johnson pleaded guilty before Judge Bingham on July 24 to a one-count accusation charging him with third-degree hindering apprehension or prosecution by giving false information to a law-enforcement officer. Bingham lowered Johnson’s bail to 10 percent of $50,000 cash bail on July 24 after Johnson pleaded guilty. Bingham eventually sentenced Johnson to five years of incarceration on Sept. 15, at which time the state dismissed the murder charges and weapons offenses against him.

Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Tim Ward was the prosecutor in the case, Spears was represented by pool attorney George B. Somers Jr. and Johnson was represented by public defender Jessica Lyons.

PROSECUTORS: Two men indicted for murder of Elvin Kimble

Scott Ketterer — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 14:22:57 -0400

A Mercer County Grand Jury has returned indictments against two men in the murder of 19-year-old Elvin Kimble.
The 19-year-old was gunned down on a city street in November 2015.

Elvin Kimble

According to the prosecutor’s office that on November 24, 2015 around 12:39 a.m., police officers were dispatched to the area of Chestnut Avenue and Rusling Street on a report of shots fired. Officers arrived and found evidence of a shootout between at least two people on either side of Rusling Street, but did not locate a victim.

Later, at 6:18 a.m. police were called to 112 Rusling Street after receiving a report that a resident’s vehicle was struck by gunfire. When police responded, a Division Street resident approached the officers to report a man lying dead between a parked car and a fence in his driveway. That man was later identified as Elvin Kimble; he suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jermaine Johnson

Following an investigation by Detective Nancy Diaz and the Mercer County Homicide Task Force, complaints were signed on January 14, 2014 charging Gary Spears and Jermaine Johnson with Kimble’s murder. The pair remain in jail on $1 million bail.

Prosecutors said that Spears, 34, of Trenton, and Johnson, 40, of Ewing, were each charged on one count of first degree murder, one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and one count of second degree unlawful possession of a handgun. Spears was also indicted on one count of second degree certain person not to possess a firearm.

The case was presented to the grand jury by Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Ward.

In January 2015, Ward said that an hour before Kimble was shot he was seen breaking into Johnson’s vehicle. Ward said in January that according to an unnamed witness Johnson gave chase and Kimble allegedly fired in his direction.

It is alleged that Johnson recruited the help of Gary Spears to retaliate against Kimble. At a January 2015 bail hearing prosecutors believed that Spears fired the shot that ended Kimble’s life.

Murdered Trenton man broke into suspect’s car before being killed: Prosecutors

Isaac Avilucea — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 11:13:40 -0500

Jermaine Johnson

One hour before he was killed in a gun battle on the hardscrabble streets of Trenton, Elvin Kimble and another person burglarized the vehicle of a man who is charged in his murder, prosecutors said.

When 40-year-old Jermaine Johnson, of Ewing, gave chase, Kimble fired in his direction, Assistant Prosecutor Tim Ward said.

This was the story provided to investigators by someone who was apparently with Kimble in the hours before his death.

Ward described the individual as a witness and would not say whether it was the person who helped Kimble burglarize Johnson’s van. Ward also refused to say if the
individual has been charged.

Prosecutors revealed at a bail hearing Tuesday that Johnson, angered over the break-in and being shot at, recruited individuals, including 33-year-old Gary Spears
of Trenton, to help him retaliate against Kimble.

A gun battle ensued near the intersection of Rusling and Chestnut, and Kimble was struck in the back. Prosecutors believe Spears fired the fatal shot.

Kimble retreated to Division Street, where he collapsed behind a van — his tragic final resting spot.

Police had been called Nov. 24. to the scene on a report of gunfire shortly after 12:30 a.m. and discovered numerous spent shell casings but no sign of Kimble — a
critical misstep that sealed the 19-year-old’s fate.

Kimble, wearing a ski mask and with a gun still in his hand, was found by police slumped over near a van on the 700 block of Division Street around 6:15 a.m.

Elvin Kimble

Ward said Spears was captured by surveillance footage standing next to Johnson and firing toward Kimble.

Edward Heyburn, Johnson’s attorney, said there is no evidence on the tape his client opened fire, suggesting he was “caught up in the crossfire.”

Prosecutors did not accuse Johnson of firing at Kimble. But like his codefendant, he is charged with weapons offenses.

“He wasn’t involved in a shootout,” Heyburn said. “He just happened to be present.”

Each suspect was ordered held on $1 million bail following hearings before Superior Court Judge Timothy Lydon, in part because of their past scrapes with the law.

Heyburn conceded his client has a “troubled past,” but said he has “paid his debts to society” following stints in prison on convictions for drugs, guns, witness tampering and theft.

Spears, the accused triggerman, also has numerous drug convictions and was on probation for a contempt conviction at the time of Kimble’s murder, prosecutors said.

Spears’ attorney, Laura Yaede, questioned the quality and accuracy of surveillance footage prosecutors said captured her client opening fire on Kimble.

Ward said his office has another dagger for evidence: The defendant acknowledged shooting at Kimble and pointed himself out on film.

The tape, Ward said, “is clear enough that Mr. Spears identified himself.”

Two men arrested in connection with Elvin Kimble homicide

Scott Ketterer — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:49:29 -0500

Two men were arrested in the shooting death of Elvin Kimble, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said Friday.

According to a release, the pair were arrested on Friday morning in connection with the 19-year-old’s death.

Jermaine Johnson

Jermaine Johnson, 40, of Ewing and Gary M. Spears, 33, of Trenton by the Mercer County Homicide Task Force and the U.S. Marshals. Johnson was arrested at his home, and Spears was taken into custody at a relative’s home, the prosecutor’s office said.

Both men are currently charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon. Each man had his bail set at $1 million.

The charges are the result of an investigation by prosecutor’s Detective Nancy Diaz and the homicide task force.

The victim, Elvin Kimble, died of a single gunshot wound to the back the release said. His body was discovered near a parked van behind a home on Division Street on Nov. 24, 2015 around 6:15 a.m.

Retired cop says he is shaken by carnage in Chambersburg

Isaac Avilucea — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 16:12:13 -0500

Retired Trenton cop Mickey Forker watches as police investigate the murder of Elvin Kimble in Chambersburg. (Isaac Avilucea - Trentonian)

For more than 30 years, old-timey Trenton cop Mickey Forker raced toward violence in the capital city in his “wagon.”

In the early-morning hours Tuesday, the violence came to him.

“Chambersburg used to be spotless,” said Forker, a retired Trenton Police officer who has lived in a sparsely furnished apartment on Division Street for 20 years. “Now you have a lot of shootings going on in Chambersburg.”

Firefighters were called Tuesday afternoon to a gruesome scene. They hosed down the blood-stained concrete outside of a home on 700 Division Street, hours after a gun battle claimed the life of 19-year-old Elvin Kimble. His killer or killers remain on the prowl.

The gunshots had faded, but Kimble’s family was still shell-shocked.

“I’ve been changing his diapers since he was 1 year old,” Tanya Smith, Kimble’s aunt, said at the scene.

Shards of glass were scattered on Rusling Street, feet from where a bullet grazed a resident’s black car. The man stood outside in the street with his friend, changing a flat tire that was also struck in the crossfire.

Witnesses said they heard as many as 20 shots, including a round that shook residences streets over. A woman said it sounded like a shotgun blast.

The cops had been called to this Chambersburg neighborhood hours earlier on a report of gunfire. Officers found nothing. Kimble wasn’t discovered until hours later, around 6 a.m.

Forker said he knows why – the boys in blue are overworked.

“You’re 150 cops short in the city right now,” he said. “I feel bad for them. They’re out here working 12 hours shift. They’re very shorthanded. They go from one job to the next.

“They’ll arrest a guy, they’ll process him, and they’re out on the street before the ink dries. It takes two years for them to go to trial. They’re out doing the same thing. That’s like, ‘I’m the garbage man, and I pick up the garbage and throw it in that garbage can.’ An hour later, they throw it back out again. That’s the best metaphor I have for the criminal justice system.”

People poured out of their homes and into the streets, shouting there were two bodies. It was hard to separate fact from fiction until a medical examiner’s van arrived and hauled off only Kimble’s body.

Staked out at the scene, Forker greeted his former compatriots as they arrived.

The city’s latest murder shattered two months of peace. For Forker, it was proof the city he once knew and proudly patrolled has seen better days.

“Mercer County – and I got to say this – is the dumping ground for all these people that the townships don’t want,” Forker said. “I’m gonna use the word dysfunction and undesirable to describe a certain group of people. You see guys with four, five felonies who are back on the street again.”

Police investigate murder on Division Street

Penny Ray — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 09:19:01 -0500

Police investigate a murder on Division Street. November 24, 2015 (Penny Ray - Trentonian)

A man was shot and killed Tuesday morning, ending a two-month break from homicides in the city.

“There was some type of gun battle out here last night,” a man who was at the murder scene Tuesday said. “But by the time cops got here, the suspects had fled. Police searched the area and couldn't find anything, so they went on their way. People came out at six o’clock this morning to go to work and they found the kid lying in front of that car over there.”

Elvin Kimble, 19, was found dead behind a home in the 700 block of Division Street around 6:15 a.m. Tuesday. Authorities have not confirmed the exact time that he was shot, but police say officers were dispatched to the intersection of Rusling Street and Chestnut Avenue to investigate a reported shooting around 12:30 a.m. Police say they found evidence of a shooting in that area, but did not find a victim.

Then, about six hours later, police received a call reporting a bullet hole in a vehicle that was parked on Rusling Street. While investigating that matter, police received a call reporting a dead body behind a house on Division Street.

Elvin Kimble

The location of the 12:30 a.m. shooting is about a block away from where Kimble was found dead. A spokesperson with the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said it appears that Kimble was shot near the intersection of Rusling and Chestnut, and then managed to run to Division Street where he collapsed and was hidden by a van. Officials also say the incident appears to have been a shootout between at least two people who were on opposite sides of Rusling Street. Police found multiple shell casings in the area, and several vehicles were struck by gunfire. No additional victims had been found by press time.

One of Kimble's friends confirmed that he was involved in a gun battle early Tuesday morning, and said she saw him with a gun in his hand. Another witness described the shooting as sounding "like fireworks," and said she heard about 15 to 20 gunshots.

Kimble was arrested in September for drug possession. Police noticed him on the front porch of an abandoned property on Hewitt Street, and when officers approached him, Kimble allegedly tried to hide crack cocaine in his pocket.

Anyone with information about Kimble’s murder is asked to call the Mercer County Homicide Task Force at (609) 989-6406 or contact the Trenton Police confidential tip line at (609) 989-3663. Individuals may also call the Trenton Crime Stoppers tip line at (609) 278-8477. Those wishing to text a tip can send a message labeledTCSTIPS to Trenton Crime Stoppers at 274637.

-Trentonian reporter Isaac Avilucea contributed to this report.