A judge will decide in the coming months whether the Skillman twins’ brother who is charged with killing two Trenton residents within days of each other will be tried for both murders at a single trial.
Alton Jones
Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez said at a hearing Tuesday he will issue a written opinion in April about whether prosecutors can try Alton Jones jointly for the murders of Rayshawn Ransom and Tierra Green.
In arguing the murders are connected, prosecutors in January asked to try the cases together before a single jury rather than separating them and having different panels decide whether Jones killed the city residents.
Assistant Prosecutor Stephanie Katz has said the murder cases are tied together because Jones used the same handgun to mow down both Ransom and Green on Passaic Street in June 2013. Green was fatally shot in the stomach three days after Ransom was gunned down in a deadly, gang-related shootout that led to convictions of two other Trenton men.
Prosecutors and defense attorney Andrew Duclair, who represents Jones, were scheduled to make oral arguments on the joinder motion Katz filed. Duclair opposed his client being tried together. Both attorneys agreed to have the judge review court papers and have him decide the issue rather than arguing it.
Whatever Jimenez decides, Jones is expected to take his cases to trial.
Prosecutors have said they are at an impasse in negotiations with Jones, who rejected a plea offer of 40 years in state prison, 20 years each running consecutively for two counts of aggravated manslaughter.
Jones was initially charged along with Marquis Skillman, and Dyquise Leonard, following the shooting death of Ransom, 19, who was gunned down while he sat in a car with friends on Passaic Street.
Rayshawn Ransom
Investigators have said the fatal shot came from Jones’ automatic handgun, which witnesses said was tossed out of a getaway car that sped away from the scene.
Jones and Leonard were reportedly involved in an ongoing feud with a group of people who hailed from Passaic Street. The two groups met as part of an expected truce when Jones, Leonard and Skillman reportedly opened fire on three men, including Ransom, as he was seated in the car. Ransom’s friends were also wounded in the shootout.
Leonard pleaded guilty to attempted murder in Ransom’s death as part of a 12-year sentence.
Marquis Skillman, the twin brother of Maurice Skillman, said he was armed but did not admit to firing when he pleaded guilty to robbery last year.
He was expected to receive 11 years in state prison and was awaiting sentencing when he was arrested last week with another man. Police said Skillman and Justice Ford, 28, were found in possession of handguns and marijuana in a stolen vehicle during a traffic stop.
It is unclear how the new charges impact a plea deal for Marquis Skillman, who earlier this month refused to testify against his brother, Maurice, at his murder trial.
Maurice Skillman and Hykeem Tucker must be retried for the 2012 murder of Mercer County corrections officer Carl Batie after the first trial ended this month in a hung jury, forcing a judge to declare a mistrial for the third time in four months.
Jones is expected back in court April 4. Jimenez said, regardless of how he rules, Jones must decide that day whether he is still taking the murder cases to trial.