Self-confessed killer Wayne Bush has finally arrived at his new home — New Jersey State Prison in Trenton — for slaying a capital city rap artist in a grisly 2013 shooting.
Wayne Bush (New Jersey Department of Corrections Photo)
The state’s judiciary on Dec. 1 slapped Bush with seven years of incarceration for the homicide. Bush, 39, was originally charged with murder and weapons offenses but pleaded guilty Oct. 6 to an amended count of second-degree manslaughter committed recklessly.
Bush armed himself with a pistol and fired a kill shot that ripped through the skull of Jafar “Young Farr” Lewis during the evening of Aug. 23, 2013. The incident occurred on Middle Rose Street near Brunswick Avenue in Trenton’s North Ward. The hip-hop lyricist was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Twanna Robinson, the victim’s fiancée, gave a vivid account of the slaying earlier this year in court. She heard the gunshots that killed her man. She also testified that she saw Bush standing tall above Lewis, who was lying motionless on the ground after being gunned down that night.
Jafar "Young Farr" Lewis
“You going to jail!” Robinson shouted as Bush briefly stood at the homicide scene in a daze, according to Robinson’s witness testimony. The triggerman then fled the scene in a vehicle.
Although Robinson provided gripping testimony during the murder trial, the jury never got a chance to deliberate over Bush’s fate as Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier declared a mistrial in response to another witness delivering potentially inflammatory testimony on the witness stand.
The state was prepared to retry Bush on murder charges, but the defendant pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter after getting into additional legal trouble.
Bush was re-arrested Sept. 18 and charged with third-degree witness tampering and fourth-degree contempt on allegations he contacted a witness in his homicide case and contacted the boyfriend of another witness in violation of a judge’s no-contact order. Bush ultimately fessed up to fourth-degree contempt and received 14 months of incarceration to run concurrent with his other sentence.
For shooting the hip-hop lyricist to death and confessing to it, Bush must serve at least 85 percent of his seven-year prison term and will be subjected to three years of parole supervision upon release. Judge Billmeier on Dec. 1 also ordered Bush to have no contact with four individuals, including Twanna Robinson and the victim’s mother Jacqueline Marshall, and he must pay $2,815 in restitution to Marshall at a rate of $100 per month, according to the judgment of conviction that shows Bush must begin paying the restitution six months after his release from prison.
Bush received 1,502 days of jail credit for being locked up on two separate stints from Aug. 30, 2013, through July 27, 2017, and from Sept. 18 through Nov. 30, according to court records, which show he was briefly free on bail when he violated a judge’s no-contact order in September.
Bush is currently incarcerated at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton and will be eligible for parole in October 2019, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections.