Case closed.
Isiah Greene
The gunman who shot and killed Quaadir “Ace” Gurley at the Donnelly Homes housing complex in North Trenton five years ago has finally received punishment for his violent crimes.
Isiah Greene, 24, of Trenton, got sentenced earlier this month to six years of state incarceration for reckless manslaughter and unlawful possession of a handgun and has been ordered to pay $555 in fees and penalties.
Greene confessed earlier this year to killing Gurley, a 24-year-old father of six who suffered numerous gunshot wounds during the early morning hours of July 21, 2013.
Police solved the case back when they arrested Greene on murder charges Nov. 18, 2013, but Greene dragged his homicide case out in hopes of winning acquittal. His case went to trial three times. His first two trials ended in hung juries on Oct. 16, 2015, and Jan. 31, 2017, and his third trial ended Feb. 15 in a partial verdict, prompting Greene to resolve his outstanding legal troubles with a negotiated plea agreement on Feb. 27.
Greene has been awarded 1,739 days of jail credit that effectively reduces his prison sentence to a slap on the wrist. Mercer County Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi on May 11 sentenced Greene to six years of state incarceration pursuant to the No Early Release Act requiring he serve 85 percent of the maximum term before being paroled.
With jail credit factored in, Greene only has to serve a few more months behind bars before being eligible for parole. He will be subjected to three years of parole supervision upon release, according to Massi’s judgment of conviction.
A grand jury originally indicted Greene on first-degree purposeful murder, second-degree possession of a firearm for unlawful purposes and second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun. He was convicted Feb. 15 of unlawful possession of a handgun in his third murder trial, but the jury deadlocked on the other charges. Greene ultimately pleaded guilty Feb. 27 to an amended count of second-degree reckless manslaughter in a deal that fully resolved the homicide case.
Greene has three upper court convictions on his record. Massi sentenced him to six years of incarceration for the reckless manslaughter conviction to be served concurrent to a six-year prison sentence for the unlawful possession of a handgun conviction to be served concurrent to a six-year prison sentence for a second-degree aggravated assault conviction in an unrelated attempted murder case.
Quaadir Gurley (center) with two of his six children. (Contributed Photo)
Five months before gunning down Gurley, Greene got arrested Feb. 24, 2013, in connection with a violent crime that occurred in Trenton on that same date. He posted $100,000 full bond or cash bail in that case on June 4, 2013, and killed Gurley seven weeks later on July 21, 2013. Court records show Greene also spent time in the Mercer County Correction Center from July 29, 2013, through Aug. 1, 2013, after getting charged with several drug distribution offenses on allegations he dealt narcotics in the streets of Trenton on July 26, 2013, five days after slaying Gurley.
Members of the Mercer County Homicide Task Force arrested Greene on Nov. 18, 2013, charging him with murder and weapons offenses and jailing him on $500,000 cash bail.
Greene, being represented by defense attorney Mark Fury, reached a deal with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office to plead guilty to reckless manslaughter and aggravated assault in exchange for six years of incarceration and dismissal of the drug charges.
Judge Massi on May 11 dismissed Greene’s four-count indictment in the drug distribution case and imposed the recommended sentence in the homicide and aggravated assault cases in accordance with the negotiated plea agreement, because Massi found six years of concurrent incarceration and $555 in total fees to be “fair and in the interests of justice,” according to his judgments of conviction.
As a convicted felon, Greene has been ordered to provide a sample of his DNA and ordered to pay the costs for testing of the sample provided.