Official: Jersey City drug dealer sentenced to 8 years for killing drug dealer who shot at him

Tuesday, August 23, 2011, 12:13 PM
By Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal


Elijah Clark, seen here in Central Judicial Processing Court in Jersey City in September 2009, has been sentenced to 8 years in prison for the reckless manslaughter of a Jersey City drug dealer who shot at him on Dwight Street.

A Jersey City drug dealer who killed a competitor in self-defense during a shoot-out over control of a Greenville street corner has been sentenced to 8 years in prison, officials said today.

"I think it was a just result," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor John Wojtal said of the sentence meted out to Elijah Clark, 21, of Dwight Street, for the Sept. 14, 2009 reckless manslaughter of Aaron Ballon, 21, aka "Cash," of Bidwell Avenue.

"A guy who obviously has no regard for the laws of the state of New Jersey or for people has been taken off the street," Wojtal said today of Friday's sentencing by Superior Court Judge Joseph Isabella.

"He fired 8 rounds on a crowed street but he was not the aggressor. The victim was the aggressor," Woital said.
Ballon and Clark had prior drug convictions, including possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of school property, officials said.

Clark was originally indicted on the more serious charge of aggravated manslaughter but several issues prompted a plea to the lesser charge of reckless manslaughter.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said witnesses to the shooting were acquaintances of Clark and were reticent to testify. Also, Ballon was the aggressor and had ridden his bicycle up to Clark on Dwight Street and opened fire, Wojtal said, adding that Ballon's gun jammed and Clark shot him six times.

Ballon made it about a block away from the scene before collapsing. He died as responding officers performed CPR on him, Wojtal said. An autopsy revealed one bullet entered Ballon's forehead and exited the back of his head. Another was recovered from his neck, and he was also shot three times in the back and once in the leg.

Footage of the homicide was captured by a Police Department CCTV camera. Clark was arrested at his mother's Bergen Avenue home by Hudson County sheriff's officers on Sept. 26, 2009, the same day his wanted picture ran in The Jersey Journal.

Clark must serve nearly 7 years before becoming eligible for parole. On Friday he was also sentenced to 5 years in prison for a drug offense but the sentences will run concurrently.

Is it just me or does it seem like there have been a lot more shootings since around Thanksgiving on? Seems like every other day someone has been shot and seriously injured or worse. What gives?

Is this anyway to live? When will our Illustrious Mayor Healy step up and say this is unacceptable. There is practically a shooting every day in Jersey City. When will he speak out on crime in Jersey City? Team Healy campaigned on safer streets in Jersey City.

Residents live in fear of bullets

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A thick streak of frozen blood marks the sidewalk where a police officer shot a Jersey City man in the face Sunday night. The site is only half a block from where another man was shot dead in September.

"It scares me because my kids are coming in and out. I'm scared about bullets coming through the window," said Cedric Johnson, who lives on Dwight Street off Bergen Avenue, within a few hundred feet of where both shootings happened.

Johnson said his wife woke him when she heard gunfire Sunday night and he came out to find Kwadir Felton, 18, lying on the sidewalk. He said police officers were yelling at residents to stay away.

"At first he was just laying there, but later he moved his legs," said Johnson, a resident in the neighborhood since 1969. "The police were very, very agitated - mean. They were saying, 'Mind your own business. Get back in your (expletive) house.'"

On Sept. 14, a shootout at the corner claimed the life of Aaron Ballon, 21, aka "Cash," of Bidwell Avenue, officials said, adding that Elijah Clark, 20, of Dwight Street, is charged with his murder.

Ballon was shot multiple times, with one bullet entering his forehead and exiting the back of his head, police said, adding that more than a dozen spent .45 caliber and 9mm shells were recovered at the scene.

MICHAELANGELO CONTE