Sicklerville man gets 7 yrs NJSP for weapons, tampering

PRESS RELEASE
November 13, 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736

Jahsul Shabazz (7/24/81) was sentenced today to seven years in New Jersey state prison for possession of a weapon by a convicted person in connection with a shooting incident in Deptford Township on August 3, 2007.

Shabazz was convicted Sept. 18 of two weapons charges, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice in the 2007 incident on Club Court in the Locust Grove section, where seven shots were fired toward a crowd during a fight. No one was wounded, but bullets struck three vehicles. Shabazz was charged with tampering and obstruction for attempting to destroy a shirt he was wearing by flushing it down a police station toilet after his arrest, so that it could not be tested for gunpowder.

In sentencing Shabazz, Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson ordered that a four-year prison sentence for unlawful possession of a weapon be served concurrently with the seven- year term. Also to be served concurrently will be four years for obstruction and 18 months for tampering, Judge Allen-Jackson said.

Shabazz will be ineligible for parole for five years.

The defendant’s prior record included pleading guilty to drug possession in 2003. As a result, he was convicted Sept. 18 of the second-degree offense of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Joseph Brook, representing the State, argued against a defense request for a five-year sentence.