William "Bill Bill" Mitchell
One of the city men accused of murdering 23-year-old Daquan Dowling in a brazen 2012 drive-by shooting along Route 29 is about to be retried in a court of law.
William Mitchell’s second murder trial is scheduled to begin Thursday before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi. His initial trial ended last October in a hung jury.
Dowling was driving on Route 29 near the War Memorial in Trenton when perpetrators drove alongside him and fired a shot that struck him in the head, killing him instantly on Jan. 30, 2012.
Mitchell, 29, is one of the five people to be indicted in connection with the slaying of Dowling. Another defendant in the case, Andre Romero, 25, was found not guilty last October of all charges.
Co-defendant Anthony Marks, 28, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a handgun in 2015; co-defendant Jamar Square, 24, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a handgun in 2013; and co-defendant Louis Alvardo, 26, pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property in 2014.
In the initial trial, Marks and Square testified as cooperating witnesses against Mitchell and Romero. Marks and Square have not yet been sentenced for their guilt in the case, while Alvardo received a four-year prison sentence for admitting he had received the stolen Chrysler Sebring that was later connected to the drive-by shooting.
As Mitchell awaits retrial, he remains incarcerated at the Mercer County Correction Center on $1 million cash bail. Defense attorney Mark Fury is representing Mitchell; Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor James Scott is trying the case on behalf of the state.