Lance Beckett (Facebook photo)
On Friday, a 17-year-old was waived up as an adult in connection with the murder of 19-year-old Lance Beckett.
Beckett was shot and killed on September 18, 2016 on East Stuyvesant Avenue in Trenton.
Mada Eoff, 17, appeared via telephone from the Juvenile Detention Center in Middlesex County, at an initial appearance where assistant prosecutor William Fisher advised the court the State has filed for a detention hearing to have him held under the state’s new criminal justice reform rules.
Fisher advised the court that by statute there is a presumption of detention in this case.
Eoff was arrested in September of last year along with 18-year-old Quashawn Emanuel, both are Trenton residents.
The teens were pair was charged with murder, possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. The teens are part of a trio that allegedly shot Beckett before stomping on his head. Also arrested in the case was 34-year-old Omar Kennedy who is accused of stomping Beckett after he’d been shot down. At an October 27, 2016, assistant prosecutor Tim Ward said that Kennedy stomped on Beckett’s head “to ensure he was dead,” while he bled out in a wooded area near East Stuyvesant Avenue.
Four shots were fired, but it’s not clear who fired the fatal shot, however.
Eoff’s hearing is set for April 11 in front of Judge Peter Warshaw.
At Friday's hearing the teen’s attorney entered a plea of not guilty, and asked for any and all discovery to adequately defend the teen at his detention hearing.