Over a week ago a couple more arrests were made in the murder of a Newark man at a June party in Englewood, NJ. The victim was 43 years old when he was gunned down. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office charged Dwayne Redd, DeJuan Stokes, and Jamal Robinson with murder and weapons charges.

Back in June of this year, Englewood police officers were called to respond to a shooting that took place after midnight. Shots were fired allegedly at the intersection of Second and Fourth streets. The officers found the deceased lying in the roadway. He was later taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. There were text messages between one of the defendants and the deceased that allegedly shows that both of them were involved in narcotics together.

Murder and Weapons Law and Penalties

Murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3, is defined under the statute as:

  • Purposely or knowingly causing death or serious bodily injury resulting in death
  • Engaged in the commission or an attempt to commit robbery, sex assault, arson, burglary, kidnapping, carjacking, criminal escape or terrorism and in the course of such crime or immediate flight causes death of a person other than one of the participants

Murder is a first degree crime. However, unlike other first degrees where the defendant faces a maximum of twenty years in state prison, a murder charge exposes a defendant to life in prison. The minimum the defendant faces is thirty years, in which at no time is the defendant eligible for parole. That means he/she will have to serve every day of their sentence.

Possessing or using a handgun without a permit is a second degree weapons charge. New Jersey has some of the strictest handgun laws in the country. If convicted of a handgun charge, the defendant faces up to ten years in state prison.

Bergen County Murder Charges Lawyers

At the Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall, we have ten (10) criminal defense attorneys, and our credentials include the following:

  • Seven (7) were former prosecutors
  • Three (3) of which were former assistant county prosecutors
    • One was the head of the Major Crimes Division,
    • Another was the head of the Trial Team, and
    • The last one was the director of the Gun, Gang and Drug Task Force
  • Three (3) were former municipal court prosecutors
  • One Certified Criminal Trial Attorney
    • Certification comes from the Supreme Court of New Jersey
    • Less than 1 percent of attorneys in this state hold that distinction
  • Selected to the National Trial Attorneys Top 100 Criminal Defense Attorney and Top 40 Under 40
  • Multiple attorneys with superb Avvo ratings
  • Selected to Thomson Reuters Super Lawyers Rising Stars list here in New Jersey for this year
    • Only 2.5 percent of attorneys in this state are selected to this list