Luis Bryan Alvarez | Homicide Watch Trenton

Prosecutors dismiss murder charges in 2013 Chambersburg slaying

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 17:02:27 -0400

City gunman Masiyah “Chicken” Howard has beaten murder charges through attrition after being prosecuted for years as an alleged killer.

Masiyah Howard

Howard was accused of shooting and killing 25-year-old Louis Bryan Alvarez over a $20 dispute involving an Xbox video game system in 2013, but a jury earlier this year could not reach a verdict on whether Howard was responsible for the victim’s death.

The state had the option of retrying him on the murder charges, but the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office has instead decided to dismiss all counts related to the Alvarez homicide after Howard pleaded guilty in June to possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose in an unrelated robbery case.

A judge sentenced Howard to five years of incarceration in July for the weapons offense, but his time in the state prison system will be short lived. That’s because the 21-year-old Howard received 1,590 days of jail credit and is therefore slated to be released from state custody on Jan. 9, 2018, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections.

When Howard was 17 years old, he allegedly committed an armed robbery in Trenton on Feb. 11, 2013, and then allegedly gunned down Alvarez two weeks later in the city’s Chambersburg neighborhood on the night of Feb. 26, 2013.

Police arrested Howard on Feb. 28, 2013, in connection with the robbery and a few days later also charged him with murder and weapons offenses in connection with the Alvarez slaying. The state ultimately decided to prosecute Howard as an adult in both the homicide and robbery cases.

Louis Bryan Alvarez

Since his arrest in 2013 up till his transfer to the state prison system earlier this summer, Howard had been locked up at the Mercer County Correction Center on high monetary bail. He pleaded not guilty in the homicide case and took the matter to a trial by jury, which ended with a mixed verdict.

The jury on May 9 found Howard guilty of unlawful possession of a handgun but was hung on the counts of murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. The jury was firmly convinced that Howard unlawfully possessed a firearm, but the 12 jurors could not unanimously agree on whether Howard was the gunman who had shot Alvarez to death with a fatal bullet to the chest.

The weapons conviction could have resulted in Howard getting sentenced to five to 10 years in state prison, far less than the 30 to 75 years of incarceration he would have received if a jury had convicted him on first-degree murder. But the guilty verdict on the weapons charge became almost meaningless after Howard accepted a plea offer from the state in the robbery case.

Howard resolved his robbery case by pleading guilty June 2 to second-degree possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose. Prosecutors, in turn, dismissed the other counts against Howard in the robbery case and dismissed all counts in the homicide case when Mercer County Superior Court Judge Darlene Pereksta sentenced the defendant on July 7 to five years of incarceration for the weapons offense.

In dismissing the homicide-related charges, the prosecutor’s office has effectively exonerated Howard of murder while acknowledging it would have been difficult —perhaps near impossible — for the state to unanimously convince 12 jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Howard was the gunman who killed Alvarez.

At the end of the day, the state did not have the strongest case against Howard. For example, the state did not have any surveillance video, eyewitness accounts or direct evidence linking Howard to the February 2013 murder of Alvarez.

Prosecutors primarily relied upon the testimony of three cooperating witnesses — a trio of legally troubled Trenton gang members from the 793 Bloods set — who testified under oath that Howard had previously talked to them about being in the county jail for shooting someone.

Although the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Howard unlawfully possessed a handgun without first having obtained a permit to carry, the lack of direct evidence in the case and the state’s reliance upon criminal cooperating witnesses seeking lenient prison sentences may have been the issue that rendered the jury unable to unanimously decide whether Howard was guilty of murder or manslaughter. The jurors declined to speak with The Trentonian about their deliberations after the trial ended with the partial verdict.

Masiyah Howard listens to closing arguments in Mercer County Superior Court on Wednesday, May 3, 2017.
(Gregg Slaboda Photo)

Howard was represented by defense attorney Steven Lember and is currently incarcerated at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Chesterfield Township.

Jury convicts alleged killer Masiyah Howard on weapons offense, gets hung on murder count

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Tue, 09 May 2017 17:18:56 -0400

After deliberating for several days, a 12-member jury on Tuesday unanimously found Trenton gunman Masiyah “Chicken” Howard guilty of unlawful possession of a handgun but could not reach a verdict on whether he was guilty of murder or manslaughter.

Defendant Masiyah Howard listens to closing arguments in Mercer County Superior Court on Wenesday, May 3, 2017.
(Gregg Slaboda Photo)

The jurors unanimously agreed that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Howard possessed a firearm without a permit to carry, but they could not all agree on whether Howard used that gun for the purpose of committing murder.

Prosecutors have accused Howard, 21, of shooting and killing 25-year-old Louis Bryan Alvarez over a $20 dispute involving an Xbox video game system. The victim suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest inside his Chambersburg home on the night of Feb. 26, 2013. The lethal shot was fired from outside the Fulton Street residence and shattered through a front glass window before striking Alvarez.

Howard has been incarcerated in jail ever since being arrested in March 2013 at the age of 17. Being tried as an adult, Howard pleaded not guilty to murder and weapons offenses, but the jury was firmly convinced he unlawfully possessed a handgun without first having obtained a permit to carry.

With the jury convicting Howard of the second-degree weapons offense, he could potentially be sentenced up to 10 years in state prison. But the state will have to decide whether it will retry Howard on the unresolved charges of murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, because the trial ended Tuesday with the jury being hung on those two counts.

Mixed outcome

“It’s obviously not the result we were looking for,” Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Heather Hadley said Tuesday after the jury failed to convict Howard on the more serious charges in the indictment. “We believe we’ve got the right person.”

Hadley further said she was “disappointed” with the outcome but appreciated that “at least we have a conviction on one of the counts.”

The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office will have to “sit back and assess what we are going to do with the other counts,” Hadley said, adding she intends to meet with the victim’s family in the near future before making a decision on how to proceed on the unresolved charges.

The indictment charged Howard with first-degree murder, but the jurors were instructed to consider the lesser homicide charges of manslaughter if they could not reach a verdict on murder.

“The jury could not reach a verdict on either the murder or manslaughter counts; they were hung,” said Steven Lember, Howard’s defense attorney. “We don’t know how they were leaning.”

Lember said “we won’t know for a while” on whether the state will retry the case on the unresolved charges.

Little evidence

The state did not have any surveillance video, eyewitness accounts or direct evidence linking Howard to the February 2013 murder of Alvarez, but prosecutors did have three cooperating witnesses — a trio of legally troubled Trenton gang members from the 793 Bloods set — who testified under oath that Howard had previously talked to them about being in jail for shooting someone.

Louis Bryan Alvarez

The lack of direct evidence in the case and the state’s reliance upon criminal cooperating witnesses seeking lenient prison sentences may have been the issue that made the jury unable to unanimously decide whether Howard was guilty of murder or manslaughter and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

After the trial ended Tuesday afternoon, Trenton Homicide Watch asked the jurors whether they wanted to comment on their deliberations, but all of them respectfully declined.

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson presided over the trial and told the jurors it was regrettable they could not reach a verdict on all counts but that “you’ve given it your best shot. I know you have. Thank you.”

3 Bloods gangsters testify against Masiyah Howard at Chambersburg murder trial

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Wed, 03 May 2017 20:19:27 -0400

Defendant Masiyah Howard listens to closing arguments in Mercer County Superior Court on Wednesday, May 3, 2017.
(Gregg Slaboda Photo)

Going to trial without any eyewitness reports or direct evidence, the state’s murder case against Masiyah “Chicken” Howard relies primarily upon the sworn testimony of three so-called 793 Bloods street gang members.

Howard, 21, of Trenton, is accused of shooting and killing 25-year-old Louis Bryan Alvarez over a $20 dispute involving an Xbox video game system.

Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Heather Hadley on Wednesday conceded the state does not have any surveillance video, eyewitness accounts or direct evidence linking Howard to the February 2013 murder of Alvarez in Trenton’s Chambersburg neighborhood, but she said the state can prove Howard committed the brazen murder by assessing his alleged words of self-incrimination.

After authorities busted an alleged racketeering operation in Trenton that resulted in 20 members of the 793 Bloods set getting indicted in 2014, Howard allegedly told three of those gangbangers that he was in jail for shooting someone.

Those three hardened criminals — Kenneth Williams, Hector Maldonado and Joel Flowers — all took to the witness stand and testified under oath that Howard had talked to them about the slaying back when they were all housed together as inmates at the Mercer County Correction Center.

“They weren’t the best characters we could find,” Hadley said of the three gangsters-turned-snitches. But she said they are all credible witnesses, adding, “There would be no witnesses if the defendant didn’t tell his story.”

A snitch is a person who tells someone in authority about something wrong that someone has done. The Bloods gangsters became snitches against Howard, and Hadley suggested that Howard never saw that coming because, she said, Howard was conditioned to believe that gang members live by a street code that prohibits snitching.

Defense counters

Steven Lember, Howard’s defense attorney, chastised the state for relying upon the testimony of three gangsters who are seeking prison-sentence leniency for their guilt in other crimes. He accused the state of engaging in “confirmation bias” of believing in the flattery of non-credible snitches simply because their statements had confirmed the prosecution’s belief that Howard is the gunman responsible for Alvarez’s death.

“They all have motive to lie,” Lember said of Williams, Maldonado and Flowers, all of whom could have received 50-year prison sentences if convicted on their racketeering and gang criminality charges. The three gang members have each become state cooperating witnesses and all reached plea agreements in hopes of receiving lenient sentences.

Lember in his closing arguments on Wednesday further attacked the credibility of the three gangsters.

He said Maldonado is a “serial snitch” who had testified that Howard used a revolver in the slaying while evidence in the case shows that a weapon that discharges shells was used in the shooting. A revolver does not eject shell casings.

The defense attorney said Flowers, a reputed Bloods gang general, is “your perfect wolf in sheep’s clothing” and “a liar” who falsely testified to being Howard’s cellmate. Inmate records show the two were never cellmates, Lember said.

Then Lember mentioned the fact that Williams has been re-arrested on other charges ever since he became a state cooperating witness who had secured release from the county jail on condition of electronic monitoring pending sentencing. Williams previously pleaded guilty in 2012 to lying to a police officer.

Adult charges

Howard was 17 at the time of his arrest but is being tried as an adult. He has been charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of a handgun in connection with the slaying of Alvarez.

Louis Bryan Alvarez

The victim suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest inside his Trenton home on the night of Feb. 26, 2013. The shot was fired from outside the Fulton Street residence and shattered through a front glass window before striking Alvarez.

Speaking to the jurors, Lember said, “I ask you to return a verdict of not guilty on all counts in the indictment.”

The jury is expected to begin deliberating on Thursday.

Former Bloods gangster testifies against alleged killer Masiyah Howard

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 18:57:30 -0400

A former Bloods gangster who pleaded guilty in 2014 for his role in a large-scale racketeering case testified Thursday at Masiyah Howard’s murder trial, saying the alleged killer had talked to him at the county jail about having shot someone.

When Kenneth Williams was incarcerated in the same jail pod with Howard three years ago, “He asked me for a suit,” Williams said Thursday on the witness stand. “He said he was in there shooting somebody and he’s basically trying to fight the case. … He didn’t tell me who he shot.”

Howard, 21, of Trenton, is accused of shooting and killing 25-year-old Louis Bryan Alvarez in the city’s Chambersburg neighborhood on Feb. 26, 2013. Police arrested him days later on unrelated robbery charges and then gained probable cause to charge him with murder and weapons offenses.

Louis Bryan Alvarez

Authorities say Howard went to Alvarez’s Fulton Street residence to confront him and then fired a shot through a glass window after the victim had slammed the door shut about 9:50 p.m. Trenton cops arrived on scene to find Alvarez unresponsive, suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso. Medics rushed Alvarez to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he died about an hour later that evening.

Howard was 17 at the time of his arrest but is being tried as an adult.

Williams has decided to come forward and testify against Howard, but he struggled on Thursday to give a clear explanation on why, exactly, he is cooperating with the authorities in the murder case.

Ex-gangster’s testimony

Williams, 25, of Trenton, was one of 20 defendants indicted in 2014 on racketeering and gang criminality charges in connection with an alleged criminal enterprise involving Bloods gang members who sought to gain money and power for the enterprise.

In June 2014, Williams took a plea deal in the Operation Checkmate racketeering case that allowed him to plead guilty to one count of second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. The deal called for him to serve a minimum of three years but no more than seven years in prison and required him to cooperate against some of his co-defendants in the racketeering case.

Shortly after reaching the plea deal, Williams was conditionally released from the Mercer County Correction Center with an electronic-monitoring device placed on his ankle pending sentencing. While out on bail, he was re-arrested on several additional occasions but remains free pending sentencing for his crime of possessing a firearm for an unlawful purpose.

Steven Lember, Howard’s defense attorney, during cross-examination on Thursday questioned Williams about his criminal history and asked him if he had cleaned up his act.

“Yes, sir,” Williams responded shortly after acknowledging he had pleaded guilty in 2012 to lying to a police officer.

Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Heather Hadley on Thursday asked Williams about his 2014 jail interaction with Howard, who was known by the nickname Chicken.

“He said he shot him,” Williams said of Howard. “I don’t know where he said he shot him at, but he said he shot him. He didn’t give no description, but I know it was over some type of Xbox and I know some other dude was there, so I don’t really know who did what. You feel me? He said dude got shot.”

“Did he say he shot the man?” Hadley asked.

“Yeah,” Williams responded.

Howard has pleaded not guilty to all counts. His murder trial is scheduled to resume 11 a.m. next Tuesday before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson.

Masiyah Howard’s murder trial approaches in brazen 2013 Chambersburg slaying

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 18:54:48 -0400

Alleged killer Masiyah Howard will soon have his day in court.

Howard’s murder trial is scheduled to begin 10 a.m. May 4 at the Mercer County Criminal Courthouse before Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson.

The homicide victim was a Guatemalan native who worked in Trenton and lived on Fulton Street. On the night of the slaying, Howard went to Alvarez’s residence to confront him and then fired a shot through a glass window after the victim had slammed the door shut about 9:50 p.m., police alleged.

Louis Bryan Alvarez

Trenton cops arrived on scene to find Alvarez unresponsive, suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso. Medics rushed Alvarez to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he died about an hour later.

Police say Howard committed two separate robberies in February 2013 leading up to his alleged fatal gunplay that month. He is accused of robbing a Trenton deli and robbing another man. Police arrested him on March 2, 2013, first charging him with the robbery counts and then hammering him with murder charges.

Howard was 17 at the time of his arrest but is being tried as an adult.

Defense attorney Steven Lember is representing Howard; Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Heather Hadley is trying the case for the state.

Another plea offer coming for Trenton teenage murder suspect

Isaac Avilucea — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 20:51:58 -0500

Prosecutors expect to extend another plea offer to Masiyah Howard next month which would package charges of robbery and murder if he accepts it.

Howard is charged with numerous crimes in Chambersburg, including the slaying of 25-year-old

Louis Bryan Alvarez

, who was gunned down at his city home on Feb. 26, 2013.

Assistant Prosecutor James Scott said at a status hearing Monday he plans to send a written offer to Howard’s attorney about two weeks before his next court appearance, on March 21.

Howard, who is jailed on a combined bail of $800,000, was previously offered a plea deal that called for him to serve 30 years in state prison if he admitted to robbery, aggravated manslaughter and weapons offenses.

Howard attorney, Steven Lember, told the court he plans to file a Miranda motion to get the statement his client gave to authorities thrown out.

Even if the statement is quashed, Judge Darlene Pereksta said that would not resolve Howard’s case.

Howard will have two weeks to consider prosecutors’ forthcoming plea offer, which Scott did not disclose at the hearing.

The judge told Howard to “think long and hard” about whether he wants to accept the offer as prosecutors said they will yank the offer off the table if Howard does not accept it by the time his next appearance rolls around.

Prosecutors have said Howard confronted and shot Alvarez, a Guatemalan native who worked in Trenton, on the 200 block of Fulton Street. They exchanged words prior to Howard allegedly pulling out a handgun and shooting through a glass door, prosecutors have said.

Howard is also charged in separate robberies that occurred weeks before Alvarez was killed, at a city deli on Feb. 11, and of another Latino man about a week prior.

Prosecutors wanted to try the robbery and murder cases together because they contend Howard used the same 9 mm handgun to commit crimes blocks apart within weeks of each other. Howard targeted Latino victims each time, prosecutors said. A judge previously said he was not “inclined” to let prosecutors try the cases together.

Judge ponders request to wrap all charges together in homicide trial

Isaac Avilucea — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 15:46:58 -0400

Louis Bryan Alvarez

A judge has said he is “inclined” to deny prosecutors’ request to try Masiyah Howard together on unrelated robbery and murder counts rather than at separate trials.

The teenage Howard is charged in numerous crimes in Chambersburg, chiefly the slaying of 25-year-old Louis Bryan Alvarez, who was gunned down at his city home on Feb. 26, 2013.

Howard was charged with counts of murder, robbery and weapons offenses.

Alvarez, a Guatemalan native who worked in Trenton, was shot shortly after he was confronted by Howard at his residence on the 200 block of Fulton Street.

Alvarez and Howard, who lived around the corner on Emory Avenue, exchanged words until Alvarez slammed the door and Howard allegedly pulled a handgun and shot through the glass door, prosecutors have said.

Howard is also charged in separate robberies that happened weeks before Alvarez was killed, at a city deli on Feb. 11, and of another Latino man about a week prior.

Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Korngut argued in court papers and at a hearing last week that the robberies and murder should be married together and Howard should be tried at one trial rather than separate ones because the crimes are related and explain Howard’s motive for the murder.

Howard used the same 9 mm handgun to commit crimes within blocks of each other, weeks apart, all involving Latinos, prosecutors said.

Korngut said authorities believe Howard targeted Latinos because they did not put up much resistance and they would “just walk away.” Those circumstances, Korngut said, “join the crimes together.”

The motive in the murder, however, is in dispute, and it has been suggested that Alvarez was killed because of a debt over video games.

Howard’s attorney, Steven Lember, said prosecutors would have difficulty trying the cases separately and that’s why they’re trying to “glue” them together.

But he said if they had enough evidence to do that, they would have presented the robberies and murder cases together at the grand jury phase.

He said it’s telling that they didn’t and suggested that’s because the crimes have different motives.

Lember said the robberies were about money, not the targeting of minorities. The murder he said centers on a “transaction that went bad.”

For those reasons, Lember told Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier that having the cases tried together would be inappropriate and could cause more legal headaches, in part because the unrelated robberies involve codefendants.

While noting he was hesitant to join the cases together, Billmeier said he was reserving decision and would issue a written opinion in the coming weeks.

Howard, 17 at the time Alvarez was killed, is being tried as an adult. He has been offered a plea deal by prosecutors calling for a 30-year sentence if he admits to robbery, aggravated manslaughter and weapons offenses.

The robbery and weapons counts carry 15-year and 7-year sentences, respectively, but they would run concurrently to the 30-year sentence for Alvarez’s death, prosecutors said.

Howard, who is jailed on a combined bail of $800,000, did not appear in court for the hearing because he refused to be transported from the county jail.

Teenager accused of murder charged as adult, rejects plea deal

Paul Mickle — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 14:36:43 -0400

Teenager Masiyah Howard appeared in adult court today to hear that he can get out of prison at age 65 if he pleads guilty now to a 2013 killing that caused racial strife in Chambersburg.

Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Lew Korngut made the 52-year offer to Howard for pleas to aggravated manslaughter, robbery and weapons offenses for the gunshot killing of Louis Bryan Alvarez on Feb. 26 of last year.

Howard was 17 at the time, but a judge ruled him eligible for trial as an adult after authorities brought out that in addition to the murder, he allegedly had been in on the armed robbery of a Chambersburg bodega a few weeks before the slaying.

Alvarez, who was 25 at the time of his death, was a native of Guatemala who worked in Trenton. He reportedly answered the door of his home on Fulton Street and was confronted by Howard, who lived around the corner on Emory Avenue.

Police said they exchanged words until Alvarez slammed the door and Howard allegedly pulled a handgun and shot through the glass door.

Hit in the torso by the sole bullet fired, Alvarez was found dead in the house soon after by cops and medics. Howard told cops Alvarez owed him money, but the victim’s family said they knew of no connection between the pair.

Howard was arrested on March 12 of last year and was charged with the Alvarez murder as he sat in Mercer County jail on charges of taking part in the earlier armed bodega heist.

In the hearing Monday, before Mercer Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier, Korngut said the state case was strong, disclosing that one of the suspect’s accomplices in the robbery had fingered him as the killer and that a jailhouse informant said Howard admitted the deadly shooting to him.

In addition to the usual problems with getting accomplices to testify against cohorts in court, Korngut noted that like many other major cases from those years, the main detective was Trenton’s Edgar Rios, who was shot and nearly killed a year ago, and recently announced his retirement.

But even defense lawyer Steve Lember said the prosecution won’t need Rios to present its case. The attorney said what the witnesses have to say, and his cross examination of them, will be the key factor at trial.

Lember said his client, whose mother was in the audience, would not accept the plea offer made by Korngut, which was 25 years for murder, 15 more for robbery and seven more for the weapons charges. Lember said he was ready to go to trial.

Being held on a total of $800,000 bail, Howard appeared in court in shackles and an orange prison jumpsuit. His face remained expressionless through the proceedings.

The bodega heist and Alvarez slaying were among a spate of crimes against Latinos, particularly Guatemalan immigrants, which caused ethnic strife and prompted civic leaders to step in and call for calm.

Teenager arrested in home invasion slaying

Brian Dzenis — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:31:52 -0400

Trenton police charged a 17-year-old male juvenile on March 2 for the murder of Louis Bryan Alvarez, 25, of Trenton.

The teen, who police did not identify because he was a juvenile, had been in custody on robbery charges when police charged him with murder.

According to police on Feb. 26, the suspect was banging on the door of a home on the 200 block of Fulton Street when Alvarez answered the door. Alvarez and the suspect exchanged words before Alvarez shut the door on the suspect. As Alvarez retreated in the home, the teen allegedly fired a single shot through the window, striking Alvarez in the torso. Police found him unresponsive at the home and was declared dead at the Capital Health Regional Medical Center.

City man killed during Tuesday home invasion

Brian Dzenis — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:29:49 -0500

Police are looking for a suspect in the city’s second homicide in 24 hours and sixth on the year.

At 9:52 p.m. Tuesday, roughly 10 hours after James Austin was gunned down on East State Street, a man went to a home on the 200 block of Fulton Street and started banging on the door. The victim, Louis Bryan Alvarez, 25, of Trenton, answered the door and exchanged words with the man. The suspect tried to force his way into the home when the victim slammed the door and retreated further into the home. The suspect fired a single shot through the first floor window, striking the victim in the torso, Lt. Stephen Varn said.

Police arrived on scene to find Alvarez unresponsive. He was taken to the Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:56 p.m. Several other individuals were inside the home at the time of the shooting, but none of them were injured, Varn said.

Det. Edgar Rios of the TPD and Det. Tony Abarno of the Mercer County Prosecutors Office are investigating the murder. Anyone with information regarding the homicide can call Rios at 609-989-4158, the confidential tipline at 609-989-3663 or Trenton Crime Stoppers at 609-278-8477.

Alternatively, tipsters who prefer to text a tip can text information to TCSTIPS to 274637.