Murdered last month, Jersey City's Jalil Spears is now a suspect in a drive-by shooting

by Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal
Monday May 11, 2009, 7:45 PM

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said today that a man murdered last month is a suspect in a drive-by shooting.

Murdered last month, a Jersey City man who had several run-ins with the law is now a suspect in a drive-by shooting that happened before he died, officials said today.

Last week the New Jersey State Police lab found DNA belonging to Jalil Spears, 22, formerly of the Montgomery Gardens housing complex, in a vehicle used in a Jan. 3 drive-by shooting on Communipaw Avenue, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.

Spears, who was acquitted of felony murder in Oct. 9, was out on a $75,000 bail on an eluding police charge when he was fatally shot at the Booker T. Washington housing complex on April 25 at 1 a.m., officials said.

"It shows the continuing inter-relationship between a limited number of people and these violent attacks," DeFazio said, adding that Spears had also been a "person of interest" in the Feb. 10 murder of Justin McNeil, 21. The former Wilkinson Avenue resident was shot dead on the sidewalk at Ocean and Bayview avenues.

"Its the same cast of characters appearing over and over again," DeFazio said, noting that finding Spears' DNA in the vehicle does not mean he was in it at the time of the shooting.
Kevon White, 21, of Fulton Avenue, has been charged with attempted murder in connection to the drive-by-shooting near Van Horne Street that left a 35-year-old man lying face down and bleeding from the leg, reports said.

The victim told officers someone shot him from the sunroof of a passing car, reports said.

Police chased the car, lost it, but then found it at the Montgomery Gardens housing complex, DeFazio said.

In October, Spears was acquitted of the felony murder of Antwon Hill, 19, of Jersey City, who was gunned down in a robbery attempt on Oct. 20, 2007, near Montgomery Gardens, DeFazio said.

Prior to being charged in Hill's homicide, Spears pleaded guilty to an unrelated firearms charge and was sentenced to probation, DeFazio said.

Spears was also arrested in February at Bergen and Bramhall avenues and charged with eluding police during a high speed chase on the NJ Turnpike, officials said.

Mouse-

Yes there is, IIRC, but the city/housing authority has to do so via a lawsuit- or perhaps some kind of administrative court action.

-edit- 1337 posts! I'm so 'leet! Bah humbug.

Quote:


Isn't there some sort of law that if you (get caught) dealing drugs in public housing that you get kicked out?

Of course, if the city really wanted to stick it to them, they could turn around and offer them "insider prices" to the Beacon.

-M

Tear the roof off the sucker.

"Lifted the rock off"?

DENT IN THEIR REIGN OF TERROR

MICHAELANGELO CONTE - JERSEY JOURNAL - JAN 9

Police have lifted the rock off an alleged group of Jersey City criminals whose associates have now been charged in three shootings, two of them fatal, officials said.

"It would appear that they are acting as a gang," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said, adding he believes recent arrests have hit the group's hierarchy and hurt its ability to function.

"The cast of characters remains constant. We have to keep trying to focus our investigative efforts on these alleged repeat offenders."

After a 19-year-old Jersey City woman was shot five times Wednesday at Claremont and Woodlawn avenues, South District detectives found a link to a murder case and the next day they arrested, Jalil Spears, 19, of the Montgomery Gardens Public Housing Complex, officials said.

Spears was charged with felony murder in the death of Antwon Hill, 19, of Jersey City, who was fatally shot during a robbery attempt on Oct. 20 near the Montgomery Shopping Plaza, DeFazio said. A search revealed Hill had drugs and money on him, DeFazio said.

Police suspect Wednesday's shooting was a botched hit between rival gangs and the intended victim, a man, jumped out of the car and ran away, leaving the woman in the vehicle to be shot.

Markell Brown, 18, of Van Wagenen Street, was arrested yesterday, and charged in that shooting, in which doctors had to leave two bullets in the woman because they are lodged near nerves, officials said.

Brown had been arrested with eight others in September during raids in Jersey City triggered by the investigation into the Aug. 6 shooting outside a Martin Luther King Jr. Drive club during which Adia Reid, 26, was killed in the crossfire of rival gangs.

Arrested in the raids were Latoya Simmons, 23, Morris Tondee, 20, Lionel Nash, 18, Eric P. Bonds, 20, Porsche Speaks, 22, Leslie Speaks, 49, Marquis Speaks, 19, a juvenile and Markell Brown, officials said.

During those raids police recovered three guns, 100 grams of cocaine and $8,000, leading to a warrant for the arrest of Morris Tondee's brother, Damielle Tondee, 23, of Garfield Avenue, accusing him of leading of a drug distribution network.

Damielle Tondee; Calvin Clark, 19; Lamont Martin, 25; and Dennis Reid, 31, were then charged with Adia Reid's murder and Damielle Tondee was later arrested in Trenton.

Damielle Tondee, Brown and Spears were out on bail at the time of the shootings in which they have been charged, DeFazio said.

"The fact that people can make bail in some instances, that's a function of our system," DeFazio said. "It's an area of considerable concern to the law enforcement community, and it requires continued scrutiny."