PRESS RELEASE
June 2, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
The family of 27-year-old Desiree McGraw on Monday marks the fifth anniversary of the date (6/6/06) when she was found shot to death behind the Jericho Fire Company on Mail Avenue in Deptford NJ.
A fire company member discovered her partially-clothed body while checking around the building, which was to be a primary election polling place on that day. Voters were directed elsewhere when the property became a crime scene.
Officers with the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and the Deptford Police Department have spent many hours and resources on the investigation and are asking the public for help with finding the person or persons responsible for this murder.
A reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, offered by the GCPO and Deptford PD, was increased last year to $8,000. Anyone with information can contact GCPO Sgt. James Ballenger at (856) 384-5601 or provide an anonymous tip by texting GLOTIP, then the message and CRIMES (274637).
“Desiree’s family deserves some answers and law enforcement wants to deal with whoever committed such a cold-blooded killing,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Police Award to GC Anti-Drug Worker
PRESS RELEASE
May 24, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Frank Smith’s youthful indiscretion with drugs cost him a fall from a tree and life in a wheelchair, and led to a job convincing more than 44,000 Gloucester County kids not to make the same mistake.
In recognition of his 22-year career as a field specialist in narcotics education with the Gloucester County Department of Human Services, the county’s Police Awards Committee today presented him its annual Civilian Service Award.
“His inspirational story is a powerful prevention tool, shared with sincerity and humor,” said committee member and Glassboro Police Lt. Ed Alicea. Smith was nominated by Sgt. Danielle LoRusso of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office Gangs, Guns and Narcotics Task Force. “You really changed a lot of people’s lives,” LoRusso told Smith, who she partners with in his Project Aware program.
Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton said he still recalls the first time he saw Smith’s presentation 16 years ago. “It had me trembling in my seat, as far as the power of his message and the importance of his message,” Dalton said.
“You turned a disability around into something really positive,” added GCPO Chief of Detectives Fred Suter.
“You know how I speak. I get down to kids’ level,” said Smith, a 1990 Gloucester County College graduate.
May 24, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Frank Smith’s youthful indiscretion with drugs cost him a fall from a tree and life in a wheelchair, and led to a job convincing more than 44,000 Gloucester County kids not to make the same mistake.
In recognition of his 22-year career as a field specialist in narcotics education with the Gloucester County Department of Human Services, the county’s Police Awards Committee today presented him its annual Civilian Service Award.
“His inspirational story is a powerful prevention tool, shared with sincerity and humor,” said committee member and Glassboro Police Lt. Ed Alicea. Smith was nominated by Sgt. Danielle LoRusso of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office Gangs, Guns and Narcotics Task Force. “You really changed a lot of people’s lives,” LoRusso told Smith, who she partners with in his Project Aware program.
Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton said he still recalls the first time he saw Smith’s presentation 16 years ago. “It had me trembling in my seat, as far as the power of his message and the importance of his message,” Dalton said.
“You turned a disability around into something really positive,” added GCPO Chief of Detectives Fred Suter.
“You know how I speak. I get down to kids’ level,” said Smith, a 1990 Gloucester County College graduate.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Mexico Arrests Fugitive in '03 Franklin DUI Crash
PRESS RELEASE
May 23, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: Arrest of ’03 Franklin auto assault defendant in Mexico
Almost seven years after he disappeared, Juan Bautista (DOB 3/17/81), formerly of Bridgeton NJ, charged with critically injuring a Franklin Township NJ woman in a drunk driving crash, has been arrested in his native Mexico and will be tried there for the Franklin crimes he faces.
Bautista was charged with aggravated assault, assault by auto, driving while intoxicated, and without a license or insurance in connection with a Sept. 16, 2003 two-car collision on Delsea Drive that left Christina Applegate, then age 21, in a coma. Her condition remains unchanged today. Bautista was released from jail on $35,000 bail on Sept. 24, 2003. After his indictment, he failed to appear at a court hearing on the charges on June 4, 2004. A warrant was issued for his arrest.
The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office was notified late last week that Bautista, who was an illegal alien living in Bridgeton at the time of the crash, was arrested Dec. 16, 2010 on a warrant issued in Mexico in November 2010. The warrant resulted from lengthy efforts by the GCPO fugitive unit to have all records related to the Bautista investigation translated into Spanish with the assistance of the California Department of Justice. The translated case file was then submitted to Mexican authorities.
In addition, Mexico required proof before seeking Bautista that he was a native of that country, and now-retired GCPO Sgt. Tim O’Brien obtained a videotaped statement to that effect from Bautista’s sister, who lives in Bridgeton. She confirmed she was present at her brother’s birth in the state of Puebla, Mexico.
The prosecution of Bautista will take place in Mexico because the crimes he is charged with are not covered by an extradition agreement. However, Mexican authorities now have all the proofs the GCPO and Franklin Township’s Police Department assembled on the crash.
“We believe Mexican prosecutors have all they need for a conviction of Juan Bautista on a crime equivalent to that which he committed here,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton. “We have always assured Christina’s family that this man would not go free, even if, as we suspected would be the case, we had to reach across our borders to find him. Now we hope our neighboring nation’s justice system will hold him accountable.”
“It’s a case we’ve been working on for some time,” said Special Agent Val Jiminez of the California Attorney General’s Foreign Prosecution and Law Enforcement Unit, whose office assists other law enforcement agencies in the documentation work. Translation of a criminal file is “quite detailed,” typically involving 300 to 500 pages, including lab reports and diagrams, Jiminez said.
The final step was verification of Bautista’s citizenship, which was a challenge since he was born with a midwife assisting, not in a hospital, Jiminez said.
Bautista will be held without bail until his prosecution, the agent said.
At the urging of Applegate’s family and friends and the GCPO, the “America’s Most Wanted” television show broadcast a segment on Bautista in 2006. The report included a dramatization of Christina Applegate’s life. Recently married, she was an aspiring race car driver and was well-liked by co-workers at a WaWa convenience store in Franklinville.
The crash occurred within sight of Applegate’s workplace as she attempted to turn her Ford Mustang onto Swedesboro Road from Delsea Drive. Bautista was driving an SUV at a high rate of speed in the opposite direction on Delsea Drive and struck the Applegate vehicle. Two passengers in the Bautista vehicle were also injured and he was charged with separate assault by auto counts for them.
May 23, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: Arrest of ’03 Franklin auto assault defendant in Mexico
Almost seven years after he disappeared, Juan Bautista (DOB 3/17/81), formerly of Bridgeton NJ, charged with critically injuring a Franklin Township NJ woman in a drunk driving crash, has been arrested in his native Mexico and will be tried there for the Franklin crimes he faces.
Bautista was charged with aggravated assault, assault by auto, driving while intoxicated, and without a license or insurance in connection with a Sept. 16, 2003 two-car collision on Delsea Drive that left Christina Applegate, then age 21, in a coma. Her condition remains unchanged today. Bautista was released from jail on $35,000 bail on Sept. 24, 2003. After his indictment, he failed to appear at a court hearing on the charges on June 4, 2004. A warrant was issued for his arrest.
The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office was notified late last week that Bautista, who was an illegal alien living in Bridgeton at the time of the crash, was arrested Dec. 16, 2010 on a warrant issued in Mexico in November 2010. The warrant resulted from lengthy efforts by the GCPO fugitive unit to have all records related to the Bautista investigation translated into Spanish with the assistance of the California Department of Justice. The translated case file was then submitted to Mexican authorities.
In addition, Mexico required proof before seeking Bautista that he was a native of that country, and now-retired GCPO Sgt. Tim O’Brien obtained a videotaped statement to that effect from Bautista’s sister, who lives in Bridgeton. She confirmed she was present at her brother’s birth in the state of Puebla, Mexico.
The prosecution of Bautista will take place in Mexico because the crimes he is charged with are not covered by an extradition agreement. However, Mexican authorities now have all the proofs the GCPO and Franklin Township’s Police Department assembled on the crash.
“We believe Mexican prosecutors have all they need for a conviction of Juan Bautista on a crime equivalent to that which he committed here,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton. “We have always assured Christina’s family that this man would not go free, even if, as we suspected would be the case, we had to reach across our borders to find him. Now we hope our neighboring nation’s justice system will hold him accountable.”
“It’s a case we’ve been working on for some time,” said Special Agent Val Jiminez of the California Attorney General’s Foreign Prosecution and Law Enforcement Unit, whose office assists other law enforcement agencies in the documentation work. Translation of a criminal file is “quite detailed,” typically involving 300 to 500 pages, including lab reports and diagrams, Jiminez said.
The final step was verification of Bautista’s citizenship, which was a challenge since he was born with a midwife assisting, not in a hospital, Jiminez said.
Bautista will be held without bail until his prosecution, the agent said.
At the urging of Applegate’s family and friends and the GCPO, the “America’s Most Wanted” television show broadcast a segment on Bautista in 2006. The report included a dramatization of Christina Applegate’s life. Recently married, she was an aspiring race car driver and was well-liked by co-workers at a WaWa convenience store in Franklinville.
The crash occurred within sight of Applegate’s workplace as she attempted to turn her Ford Mustang onto Swedesboro Road from Delsea Drive. Bautista was driving an SUV at a high rate of speed in the opposite direction on Delsea Drive and struck the Applegate vehicle. Two passengers in the Bautista vehicle were also injured and he was charged with separate assault by auto counts for them.
Monday, May 23, 2011
26-Year Sentence in '09 Deptford Fatal Stabbing
PRESS RELEASE
May 20, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: 26-year sentence in ’09 Deptford fatal stabbing
Donald D. Hetrick (DOB 2/25/62), formerly of 812 Winding Way, Deptford Township NJ was sentenced today (5/20) to 26 years in New Jersey state prison for what a prosecutor called a “particularly heinous” February 2009 fatal stabbing of 39-year-old neighbor Roland Webster in the defendant’s Knightsbridge condominium unit.
Although Hetrick claimed in pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter March 31 that he was drunk and unable to recall the multiple stab wounds inflicted on Webster, the victim’s mother told Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. that was “ludicrous,” since he had “the presence of mind” to clean up after stabbing her son 14 times and go out to a bar. Hetrick’s mother discovered Webster’s body when she went to his residence after his arrest on weapons and assault charges at a local bar on Feb 18, 2009.
Webster’s mother, Ceceil Nunes, said she had thanked Hetrick’s mother for reporting the death to police, but added “I honestly do not feel the least bit sorry her son is being sentenced to jail today.” Nunes said her son had gone to Hetrick’s home to pick up a dining table he’d purchased from the defendant to furnish his first home since fighting off a painkiller addiction after a car hit him.
Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Dana Anton, calling the stabbing “particularly heinous,” told Judge Marshall that Nunes and Webster’s sister wanted to speak and show photos of Webster “to put a face to this crime.”
May 20, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: 26-year sentence in ’09 Deptford fatal stabbing
Donald D. Hetrick (DOB 2/25/62), formerly of 812 Winding Way, Deptford Township NJ was sentenced today (5/20) to 26 years in New Jersey state prison for what a prosecutor called a “particularly heinous” February 2009 fatal stabbing of 39-year-old neighbor Roland Webster in the defendant’s Knightsbridge condominium unit.
Although Hetrick claimed in pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter March 31 that he was drunk and unable to recall the multiple stab wounds inflicted on Webster, the victim’s mother told Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. that was “ludicrous,” since he had “the presence of mind” to clean up after stabbing her son 14 times and go out to a bar. Hetrick’s mother discovered Webster’s body when she went to his residence after his arrest on weapons and assault charges at a local bar on Feb 18, 2009.
Webster’s mother, Ceceil Nunes, said she had thanked Hetrick’s mother for reporting the death to police, but added “I honestly do not feel the least bit sorry her son is being sentenced to jail today.” Nunes said her son had gone to Hetrick’s home to pick up a dining table he’d purchased from the defendant to furnish his first home since fighting off a painkiller addiction after a car hit him.
Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Dana Anton, calling the stabbing “particularly heinous,” told Judge Marshall that Nunes and Webster’s sister wanted to speak and show photos of Webster “to put a face to this crime.”
Thursday, May 19, 2011
PA Man Gets 10 Yrs NJSP in Logan Bank Robbery
PRESS RELEASE
May 18, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: PA man gets 10 yrs NJSP in bank robbery
David L. Verdi (DOB 6/16/66), of Springfield PA has been sentenced to ten years in New Jersey state prison resulting from his guilty plea to first-degree armed robbery of a Sun Bank branch in Logan Township, Gloucester County NJ on June 1, 2010.
Under his April 1, 2011 agreement to plead guilty, Verdi must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. said in imposing the prison term May 13, 2011.
Verdi acknowledged he approached a bank teller with a note asserting he had a gun and demanding cash be placed in a bag. A short time after fleeing in a vehicle with $1180, Verdi was stopped by police on Route I-295 in East Greenwich NJ. The getaway car had been stolen in Ocean City NJ, another offense to which Verdi has pleaded guilty in Cape May County. He is awaiting sentencing there.
May 18, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: PA man gets 10 yrs NJSP in bank robbery
David L. Verdi (DOB 6/16/66), of Springfield PA has been sentenced to ten years in New Jersey state prison resulting from his guilty plea to first-degree armed robbery of a Sun Bank branch in Logan Township, Gloucester County NJ on June 1, 2010.
Under his April 1, 2011 agreement to plead guilty, Verdi must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. said in imposing the prison term May 13, 2011.
Verdi acknowledged he approached a bank teller with a note asserting he had a gun and demanding cash be placed in a bag. A short time after fleeing in a vehicle with $1180, Verdi was stopped by police on Route I-295 in East Greenwich NJ. The getaway car had been stolen in Ocean City NJ, another offense to which Verdi has pleaded guilty in Cape May County. He is awaiting sentencing there.
8 Yrs NJSP in Assaults on Sheriff's Officers
PRESS RELEASE
May 18, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: 8 yrs NJSP in assaults on sheriff’s officers
Brian O. Ojeniyi (DOB 11/10/74), of 941 Morton St., Camden was sentenced today (5/18) to eight years in New Jersey state prison for his conviction on assaulting four Gloucester County sheriff’s officers in the Gloucester County Justice Center in Woodbury on June 15, 2009.
Ojeniyi was found guilty in a June 2010 jury trial of injuring the officers when he tried to run from a courtroom after learning a warrant had been issued for his arrest because he’d arrived late for a court appearance on a narcotics distribution charge.
One of the officers, Thomas Whitaker, was injured severely enough to threaten his continued employment, he testified. The struggle to detain Ojeniyi moved from a third-floor courtroom, down a stairway to just outside the courthouse entrance.
Superior Court Judge John Waters imposed the eight-year prison term for aggravated assault on Whitaker. He added four concurrent four-year terms for assault on the other officers and one count of resisting arrest. Also concurrent was a three-year term for Ojeniyi’s admitted cocaine possession in Deptford on June 1, 2008. Waters ordered that Ojeniyi be ineligible for parole for four years and awarded him 715 days off his sentence for time spent in county jail before trial.
Trial Chief Mary Pyffer of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office sought an extended term for Ojeniyi based on his record of four prior criminal convictions, reflecting what she said was “defendant’s firmly ingrained proclivity toward illegal behavior.” His lawyer asked the judge to consider that Ojeniyi completed college after an earlier prison term in order to better himself.
May 18, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: 8 yrs NJSP in assaults on sheriff’s officers
Brian O. Ojeniyi (DOB 11/10/74), of 941 Morton St., Camden was sentenced today (5/18) to eight years in New Jersey state prison for his conviction on assaulting four Gloucester County sheriff’s officers in the Gloucester County Justice Center in Woodbury on June 15, 2009.
Ojeniyi was found guilty in a June 2010 jury trial of injuring the officers when he tried to run from a courtroom after learning a warrant had been issued for his arrest because he’d arrived late for a court appearance on a narcotics distribution charge.
One of the officers, Thomas Whitaker, was injured severely enough to threaten his continued employment, he testified. The struggle to detain Ojeniyi moved from a third-floor courtroom, down a stairway to just outside the courthouse entrance.
Superior Court Judge John Waters imposed the eight-year prison term for aggravated assault on Whitaker. He added four concurrent four-year terms for assault on the other officers and one count of resisting arrest. Also concurrent was a three-year term for Ojeniyi’s admitted cocaine possession in Deptford on June 1, 2008. Waters ordered that Ojeniyi be ineligible for parole for four years and awarded him 715 days off his sentence for time spent in county jail before trial.
Trial Chief Mary Pyffer of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office sought an extended term for Ojeniyi based on his record of four prior criminal convictions, reflecting what she said was “defendant’s firmly ingrained proclivity toward illegal behavior.” His lawyer asked the judge to consider that Ojeniyi completed college after an earlier prison term in order to better himself.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Man With 3 DWIs Loses Appeal
PRESS RELEASE
May 16, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: Man with 3 DWIs loses appeal
A Vineland man found guilty of driving drunk three times lost an appeal today (5/16) to overturn the second conviction based on a claim that a municipal judge erred by not orally informing him of the increased penalties for a third DWI.
A Superior Court appellate panel affirmed the 2004 conviction of Sean P. McCormick, relying on a similar 1991 appellate decision in which a person convicted a second time of driving while intoxicated sought a dismissal of enhanced penalties because he did not receive “mandated oral advice” about the fines and driving suspensions a subsequent offense would bring. The court dismissed that argument, saying there was an “obvious legislative intent” to punish subsequent convictions more severely, regardless of prior oral or written warnings.
In his brief opposing McCormick’s appeal, Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Joseph Enos pointed to Superior Court Judge Walter A. Marshall’s previous ruling on this case: that oral notification of penalties was intended only “to hopefully deter” repeat violations.
May 16, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: Man with 3 DWIs loses appeal
A Vineland man found guilty of driving drunk three times lost an appeal today (5/16) to overturn the second conviction based on a claim that a municipal judge erred by not orally informing him of the increased penalties for a third DWI.
A Superior Court appellate panel affirmed the 2004 conviction of Sean P. McCormick, relying on a similar 1991 appellate decision in which a person convicted a second time of driving while intoxicated sought a dismissal of enhanced penalties because he did not receive “mandated oral advice” about the fines and driving suspensions a subsequent offense would bring. The court dismissed that argument, saying there was an “obvious legislative intent” to punish subsequent convictions more severely, regardless of prior oral or written warnings.
In his brief opposing McCormick’s appeal, Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Joseph Enos pointed to Superior Court Judge Walter A. Marshall’s previous ruling on this case: that oral notification of penalties was intended only “to hopefully deter” repeat violations.
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