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Aasim Boone and Renando Sheffield plea-bargained three- and four-year sentences, respectively, in connection with an Old Tappan home burglary in December 2011.
Negotiations went on much of the day and ended with Sheffield smiling at Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor David Calviello.
“Mr. Calviello,” Sheffield said, “the nightmare is over.”
Aasim Boone (l.), Renando Sheffield (r.) (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
Boone, who is also being sentenced in a Sussex County burglary case, said: “I’m not coming back to Bergen. I’m not even going to throw a bubblegum wrapper on the ground.”
The plea deals bring down the curtain on a years-long spree by members of the loosely-knit crew, which authorities say emerged in the late 1990s as successors to the James Bond Gang.
Like their notorious predecessors, members of the Boone crew came from Englewood and Teaneck. They didn’t use fancy gadgets or other means to try and thwart police. They simply broke or kicked their way into homes, then got in and got out with however much jewerly, cash and other valuables they could grab, authorities said.
Those convicted at trial or pleading guilty in the past year include:
- Akeem Boone, Aasim’s brother and the man whom authorities identified as the group’s main player;
- Melvin Collins, a convicted burglar with 60 indictments on his record;
- Jarrell Bordeaux, Marc Rainey and Jamelle Singletary, who were involved with the Boones and Sheffield in the theft of a 600-pound safe from Connecticut;
Rainey last week had three years tacked onto a 10-year sentence he began serving in October (SEE: Judge in Hackensack makes sure Englewood burglar does serious prison time).
Good police work led to the arrests of Aasim Boone and Sheffield, Calviello told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
“An officer saw a car he knew was parked in a place it didn’t belong and stopped it to question the driver,” the prosecutor said.
That turned out to be Sheffield, who told the officer he had a fight with his girlfriend, who ran off. He was waiting for her to return, he said.
Boone then suddenly emerged from the burglarized home, Calviello said. Seeing police, he ran, throwing away his clothing and gear, some of which got caught in tree branches, the prosecutor said.
He still had his cellphone, though, which he used to call a Ridgewood cab.
The cabbie was stopped by Old Tappan police who’d set up a perimeter. They questioned the driver, who said he was headed to pick up a fare.
He then gave them a familiar address: It was a condemned house used for drills by police and firefighters.
Police asked the cab driver to signal them on his way back if the passenger matched Boone’s description. He did and Boone was arrested.
“Are you waiving your right to a trial because you are, in fact, guilty of these crimes?” Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi asked Boone and Sheffield yesterday.
“Yes,” each answered in turn.
Boone, 31, agreed to four years in addition to whatever he’s sentenced to in Sussex County.
Sheffield, 32, agreed to a four-year prison term, to be added to the eight-year sentence he’s serving for the safe burglary.
His term will be reduced to three years at a June 13 sentencing for both men.
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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