The Newark boy accused of stabbing 27-year-old Carlos Leiva-Oviedo to death last year is now incarcerated on pretrial detention and facing murder charges as an adult.
Danny Saad, who recently turned 16, has been charged with murder, armed robbery, murder during commission of a crime, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon in connection with the Chambersburg stabbing death of Leiva-Oviedo.
Carlos Leiva-Oviedo
During the early morning hours of June 14, 2016, Trenton Police responded to the intersection of Hudson and Genesee streets and found Leiva-Oviedo sprawled out on the street near his car, which was parked on Hudson. He suffered multiple stab wounds and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died four hours later.
Detective Roberto Reyes of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, with assistance from other agencies, arrested Saad at a relative’s house in Newark on July 6, 2016. He was charged April 28 as an adult, and Mercer County Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw ordered the teenager to pretrial detention on May 4. Saad was 15 at the time of his arrest and turned 16 earlier this month.
Leiva-Oviedo was an immigrant from Honduras who moved to Trenton circa 2014 to earn money for his family, most of whom still live in Honduras. Leiva-Oviedo was the father of a toddler child and worked as a roofer.
“He called his daughter every week,” his girlfriend Lesvia Liliana Caballero previously told The Trentonian. “He was a very responsible person. He worked a lot and he paid for his daughter’s life. He sent her money every week.”
Saad is scheduled to appear in court 11 a.m. May 25 for a pre-indictment conference before Judge Warshaw. He was being represented by defense attorney Harley D. Breite.
Staff writer Penny Ray contributed to this report.