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Ex-con Jaquan Housey, 33, was charged with murder and weapons offenses in the slaying of Rodney Phelps, 39, of Warren County’s Washington Township.
Responding officers found Phelps’s body in the middle of Van Van Houten Avenue between the library and the Edward W. Kilpatrick School shortly before 11:30 p.m. last Friday, Feb. 4.
He’d been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Paterson Police Chief Ibrahim Baycora said.
City police and prosecutor’s detectives captured Housey at his 12th Avenue apartment before noon on Monday, they said.
Authorities were already familiar with the ex-con, who lives only blocks from the murder scene.
Housey was released from state prison in October 2019 after serving five years of a seven-year sentence for drug and weapons convictions.
He’d previously served time for a 2006 conviction for repeatedly molesting a 10-year-old girl as she slept, records show.
The 5-foot-9-inch, 150-pound Housey is classified as a Tier 2 Megan’s Law offender – meaning he’s a moderate risk to re-offend.
Two years ago, city police said they arrested Housey with 480 heroin folds, 121 crack vials and more than $7,600 in drug cash. The outcome of that case couldn't immediately be determined.
SEE: Paterson PD: Child Molester Caught Dealing, Over 600 Heroin Folds, Crack Vials Seized
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