An attorney for a former gang member began his cross examination of the lead detective in the 2014 murder of a Ewing man by focusing on whether the detective had probable cause to arrest his client.
Prosecutors say this surveillance photo shows Shaheed Brown (left) and Enrico Smalley Jr. minutes before Smalley was gunned down outside of La Guira Bar on July 12, 2014.
Defense attorney Edward Heyburn honed in on the information State Police Detective Joseph Itri had when he prepared an arrest warrant charging former Newark gang member Shaheed Brown with fatally shooting Enrico Smalley Jr. outside of La Guira Bar in the early-morning hours of July 12, 2014.
Itri’s investigation came together fast. He filed a probable cause warrant charging Brown with murder two days after the slaying, which happened outside of a packed stretch of city bars along North Clinton Avenue.
Assistant Prosecutor Brian McCauley and a judge authorized the arrest warrant, agreeing there was enough probable. The warrant was based in part on a 911 tape and former corrections officer Kenneth Crawford’s statement to Itri.
Some of the information the detective had at the time was shown at trial to be untrue.
Brown wasn’t apprehended until Aug. 17, 2014, more than a month after Smalley was killed.
He had altered his appearance, shaving the long dreadlocks that he was captured by surveillance sporting when Smalley was fatally shot six times, twice in the head.
Crawford acknowledged when he testified this week that portions of the 911 call he made anonymously from a 7-Eleven pay phone on North Olden Avenue about 22 minutes after the shooting were inaccurate and that he made assumptions about who was the shooter.
Specifically, Crawford said he saw someone shooting down at another man and identified the shooter as a taller African-American man with dreadlocks who had fled toward North Olden Avenue following the shooting.
Itri visited the 7-Eleven and obtained surveillance that helped lead him to Crawford, who had refused to identify himself to a 911 dispatcher. When he provided a statement to police, Crawford acknowledged he did not see the actual shooting because his view was obstructed by a Lincoln Navigator that was parked in front of La Guira Bar.
Crawford was sitting in his vehicle across the street from the bar when he was startled by gunshots. He testified this week that when he looked up, he saw the upper body of a man who appeared to be jerking.
“I’m thinking this person may be involved in the gunfire because I see their body doing a little jumping motion each time the gunfire went off,” Crawford said. “I thought maybe this guy is doing the shooting. Maybe he’s kinda over-exaggerating when he’s firing the weapon. You see that in those gangster movies.”
Heyburn is expected to cross examine the detective for much of Wednesday.
The Trentonian will update this story throughout the day.