TRENTON >> Two men convicted of fatally shooting convicted drug dealer Tracy Crews during a 2008 botched robbery are asking a judge to render a jury’s verdict moot and acquit them of murder.
William “Paperboy” Brown, 30, and Nigel “Youngin” Dawson, 31, were convicted last month of felony murder, murder, robbery and weapons offenses following a six-week jury trial. They face life in prison when they are sentenced April 10 by Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson.
Nigel Dawson and William Brown are accused of the 2008 murder of Tracy Crews. (Submitted photos)
Their attorneys argue Smithson’s decision to allow in Crews’ dying declaration biased the jury, especially after a previous judge ruled it was inadmissible.
Steven Lember, Brown’s attorney, wrote in his motion Smithson’s decision “irreparably damaged” the defendants’ right to a fair trial. Anticipating Smithson will deny the motion for acquittal, Lember also requested a new trial.
“The verdict was against the weight of the evidence in that the state never proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was in the victim’s home at the time of the shooting,” Lember wrote.
Smithson allowed the jury to hear Crews’ dying declaration, reversing Judge Robert Billmeier’s decision, which was based off an evolving account from Sheena Robinson-Crews, the victim’s widow.
Robinson-Crews admitted initially lying to police when she said her husband implicated both defendants. She later said her husband only mentioned Brown.
Assistant Prosecutor Al Garcia successfully argued at trial the defense opened the door for the dying declaration by accusing Robinson-Crews of conspiring in her husband’s murder.
Smithson ruled the dying declaration could help the jury make sense of Robinson-Crews’ lies, specifically when she accused Brown of pointing a handgun at her sometime after the murder. The inference was Robinson-Crews did anything to ensure her husband’s killers were arrested.
“The court’s decision to permit evidence of the so-called dying declaration after the trial had commenced and after the law of the case had been settled amounted to an error of law and constituted manifest injustice,” Lember wrote.
The defense also took issue with Smithson’s decision to bar testimony from Trenton Police Officer Nathan Bolognini, saying it “eviscerated” their third-party guilt defense.
Bolognini testified at a hearing outside the jury’s presence he did not recall reporting to superiors overhearing a phone conversation Crews’ wife had with an individual police believe was Crews’ killer hours after his death.
Police included comments Robinson-Crews’ made during the phone conversation in a warrant giving them permission to scour the couple’s Whittaker Avenue residence and phone call logs.
Attorneys also accused Garcia of misleading the jury during closing remarks. They said a PowerPoint presentation he used contained erroneous statements not in evidence the defense couldn’t rebut since they had delivered summations.
“The court failed to take necessary corrective action including requiring the state to immediately discontinue use of the presentation,” Lember wrote.