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Prosecutors originally pursued murder charges against Ferreie Johnson, 28, of Paterson, but jurors convicted him of reckless manslaughter.
That’s because the killing of Parker Sams on March 31, 2018 wasn't intentional, a requirement under the law for it to be considered murder.
Johnson had gotten into a dispute with another group at D’Classico Restaurant and Lounge on Ellison Street when he retrieved a gun from his vehicle and opened fire shortly before 2 a.m., investigators said.
Sams, 22, who worked in the package operations department at UPS in Saddle Brook, was struck in the crossfire while searching for his girlfriend, authorities said.
He was pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center a short time later.
Sams, who’d just become a father seven months earlier, was out “with friends and his loved ones when a fight broke out at a party they were attending,” his friend and co-worker Michael J. Kunz of Palisades Park said.
“When Parker realized his girlfriend wasn’t by his side he immediately ran to search for her,” Kunz added.
That’s when a bullet fired by Johnson struck him in the head.
In addition to reckless manslaughter, jurors convicted Johnson of weapons offenses following the October trial in Paterson.
Superior Court Judge Marybel MercadoRamirez sentenced Johnson on Thursday, Dec. 8, to an extended term of 20 years in prison. He must serve 17 years before he’ll be eligible for parole. At that point he'll be 45 years old.
Senior Assistant Passaic County Prosecutor Jonathan Barrera secured the verdict and sentence.
It's little solace for those who've lost Sams, however.
His daughter, Harper, “whom he loved more than anything in this world, will now grow up without her father,” Kunz wrote, “because some coward decided to open fire on a crowd of people that night.”
Kunz set up a GoFundMe page with the money going into a trust fund for Harper.
GO TO: Funeral Costs for Parker Sams
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