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Mario Ferreira Jr. of Succasunna, 23, described by prosecutors as the wheelman for the two armed assailants, made a surprise appearance in Hackensack this morning asking Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi for the bail cut.
Defense attorney James M. Doyle cited Ferreria’s ties to the community and produced a letter from contractor J. Fletcher Creamer indicating his job would still be waiting for him whenever he gets out of jail.
Ferreira Jr.’s father also works for Creamer.
TOP: Zakeer Roberts (left), Mario Ferreira BELOW: Christian Nova (PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)
Although Ferreira Jr. most recently lived in Succasunna, Doyle said, he is from Bergen County and has strong ties here.
Doyle also noted that another defendant in the Sept. 1, 2013 shooting — 21-year-old Christian Nova of Englewood — was released on $250,000 bail after a similar request was granted.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer told the judge she wouldn’t oppose $500,000 cash bail — meaning that the full amount, and not 10%, must be posted.
She did balk, however, when Doyle sought $250,000.
Prosecutors believe that Nova set up the Labor Day crime by telling defendants Hassan Sly and Zakeer Roberts, both 25 of East Orange, that the victims were drug dealers and would have drugs and money.
However, she said, it was Ferreira who drove to the Bergenfield house and waited for Sly and Roberts to rob the two men, knowing fully well what was planned.
Bergenfield police responded to a 911 call at the house just before 10 a.m. on Sept. Sunday and found both Mercado and Newcomb shot.
An investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Squad and the Bergenfield Police Department showed that the gunmen went to the house “with the intent to rob Mercado of both money and narcotics,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.
Nova told Ferriera that Mercado “was known as having sold narcotics in the past and would have both money and narcotics in his possession,” Molinelli said.
Nova “had some past dealings with Mercado” and “arranged for Mercado to be robbed by both [men],” he added.
Neither Mercado nor Newcomb knew them, the prosecutor said.
Hassan Sly (MUGSHOT: Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office)
Nova was picked up the night of the shooting.
Molinelli’s detectives arrested Roberts and Ferriera a day later, with help from East Orange police and a Newark police SWAT team.
Then, on Jan. 8, authorities grabbed Sly in an East Orange apartment.
Molinelli said investigators “have yet to clarify” who shot whom. Neither gun had been recovered, he said.
Sly and Roberts each remained held on $1 million in the Bergen County Jail.
Meanwhile, the victims — one in his early 20s and the other in his early 30s — were continuing to recover.
Mario Ferreira Jr. (STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
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CLIFFVIEW PILOT was the first to report both the shootings and the initial arrests:
- YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Two men were shot and wounded, one seriously, in the south end of Bergenfield this morning. READ MORE….
- YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Three men have been arrested and charged in a drug robbery gone wrong that led to the shootings yesterday of two Bergenfield men, one seriously, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said shortly before 6 p.m. READ MORE….
- YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A fourth suspect wanted in the shooting of two men in Bergenfield during a September home invasion was captured by detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and Bergenfield police at an East Orange apartment earlier today. READ MORE ….
- YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A lawyer for a man accused of arranging a Labor Day weekend drug and cash robbery in Bergenfield that ended with two men shot — one seriously — asked a judge today to lower his client’s bail, citing his ties to the community and his family. READ MORE….
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