TRENTON >> “Tall Guy” and “Varsity Jacket” are names a detective assigned to two men he said are responsible for killing Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie outside a city banquet hall in 2012.
Maurice Skillman
Scott Peterson, the Trenton Police detective who led the investigation into the Nov. 11, 2012 slaying of Batie at the Baldassari Regency banquet hall, used a red laser pointer to pick people on surveillance tapes shown to jurors Monday.
“Tall Guy” referred to Maurice Skillman, who towered above “Varsity Jacket,” the moniker given to his alleged accomplice, Hykeem Tucker.
After reviewing 30 hours of surveillance from five camera angles, Peterson told jurors he positively identified Skillman as the shooter. Peterson said video from the parking lot showed Skillman raising his arm right before a small spark flashes on the tape.
The man is barely in view because he is obscured by a vehicle, and he appears for only seconds in the top corner of the surveillance tape.
Skillman’s attorney, Nicole Carlo, urged Judge Andrew Smithson to strike Peterson’s testimony from the record.
She said the detective was not in a position to “conclusively say” Skillman is the individual Peterson said is captured by grainy parking lot surveillance opening fire on party-goers crammed together on the balcony of the banquet hall.
Carlo said prosecutors were using Peterson’s testimony to “usurp the jury’s” determination about whether the tapes clearly showed her client is the shooter. Her objection was overruled, and the judge said Peterson could share his opinion about the shooter’s identity.
Carlo acknowledged in her opening statement her client and his twin brother, Marquis, who is expected to testify, were at the banquet hall like the Batie brothers attending a re-election party for President Barack Obama. However, she contends Maurice Skillman was wrongfully accused of gunning down Batie, who was struck once in the head while talking to a security guard near the balcony rail when shots rang out shortly after 1 a.m.
The security guard, Alex Feliciano, testified last week he saw the shooter wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, which does not match clothes Skillman was wearing that night. A Trenton Police officer testified last week he arrested Maurice Skillman for scuffling with another man outside the banquet hall.
He said Skillman was wearing a black sweatshirt and gray pants when he took him into custody and charged him with improper behavior and obstruction.
Peterson was one of three Trenton police detectives who testified Monday.
Under direct examination by Assistant Prosecutor James Scott, Peterson painstakingly guided jurors through surveillance tapes prosecutors contend captured Skillman and Tucker roaming the parking lot of the banquet hall and entering and exiting the establishment in the hours before Skillman was shot.
Surveillance from the parking lot, Peterson said, showed Maurice Skillman and Tucker arriving in a Chevrolet Impala and parking. A white van carrying associates also arrives and parks next the Impala.
At various times, Peterson pointed out Skillman and Tucker as they congregated with the men in the parking lot and walked back and forth from nearby alleyways. The group eventually headed into the banquet Hall.
While inside, Peterson said, a white flash momentarily overtook the surveillance tape near the door of the banquet hall.
Peterson said the white flash was from a camera which snapped a definitive picture of Tucker, wearing the varsity jacket while standing next to his co-defendant’s twin brother, Marquis.
Investigators recovered 22 shell casings and two bullet fragments at the scene as well as a ski mask, baseball hat and a black winter hat. But the most important piece of evidence, the murder weapon, was never found. DNA also does not link Maurice Skillman to the murder.
Prosecutors do not believe Tucker fired shots the night Batie was killed but hope to convict him under “accomplice liability” laws.
They must show he knew Skillman planned to open fire on patrons at the banquet hall, resulting in Batie’s death.
Peterson is expected back on the stand when the trial resumes Tuesday at 10 a.m.