Justice has been served in the June 2016 stabbing death of 27-year-old Honduran immigrant Carlos Leiva-Oviedo.
Danny Saad, the 16-year-old boy who had confessed to the Chambersburg slaying, received an 18-year prison sentence last Friday. He previously pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter on Oct. 2.
This surveillance video still image helped police arrest Danny Saad as the attacker who stabbed Carlos Leiva-Oviedo to death last year. (Submitted image)
Saad was originally charged with murder, armed robbery and weapons offenses in connection with the homicide, which occurred near the intersection of Hudson and Genesee streets during the early morning hours of June 14, 2016. Leiva-Oviedo suffered multiple stab wounds and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
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. Saad was 15 at the time of his juvenile arrest and turned 16 in May shortly after prosecutors charged him as an adult. Saad himself is a Newark resident.
The homicide victim 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. He was the father of a young child and provided for his family by working in Trenton as a roofer.
Carlos Leiva-Oviedo
Weeks after the slaying, authorities released a still image and surveillance video of two men who were said to be connected to the homicide case. The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office previously disclosed that the video and image released to the media by police in July 2016 “helped investigators identify Saad” and solve the case, which suggests Saad acted alone and had no accomplices.
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert Bingham II sentenced Saad last Friday to 18 years of incarceration to be followed by five years of parole supervision. He must serve 85 percent of his prison term minus 519 days of jail credit, according to court records.
Following his sentencing last Friday, court records show that Saad had a second sentencing hearing on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear why Saad had to undergo a second round of sentencing for the same case, but it could have been to correct a mistake in the record.
Erroneous court records on Wednesday indicated that Saad was sentenced for first-degree murder — a crime that carries a punishment of 30 years to life in prison — but he had actually pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of first-degree aggravated manslaughter in a deal that called for all other charges against him to be dismissed.