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Judge reduces bail for woman charged in Hackensack limo driver’s murder

ONLY ON CVP: A judge yesterday lowered bail for a part-time hairdresser from Newark accused of lying to investigators who charged her boyfriend in the cold-blooded killing of a popular Hackensack limousine driver on Route 80 last summer.

Photo Credit: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
Photo Credit: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
Photo Credit: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia

Jomaris Gonzalez (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)

Another judge in Hackensack previously denied the bail reduction for Jomaris Gonzalez, a 28-year-old mother of three, but Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi agreed with defense attorney Adam Lustberg that a reduction in charges against her in a drug case in Essex County makes her less of a flight risk.

The judge cut the bail to $200,000 from $250,000.

The victim, 39-year-old Jeffrey Mansilla, was chased from a nightclub club in Belleville around 2 a.m. June 12 to the spot on eastbound Route 80 in Saddle Brook where authorities said Mujahideen Abdullah opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon from a silver Infiniti.

Mansilla, who was engaged to be married two months later, was hit in the hip with one of three shots fired through the driver’s side door of his 2013 GMC Yukon near milepost 63.

The bullet passed through him, a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the case told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Mansilla steered off the highway, where a passenger took the wheel and drove him to Hackensack University Medical Center.

He was later pronounced dead at HUMC.

Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)

STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

Investigators arrested Abdullah and Gonzalez at their apartment in late July.

Gonzalez is charged with possession of large quantities of both cocaine and heroin with the intent to distribute the drugs, maintaining a drug production facility, and hindering the apprehension of another by interfering with police efforts to arrest Abdullah.

She’s also charged with possession of heroin, cocaine and marijuana with the intent to sell the pot.

She and Abdullah face several charges related to drug possession and distribution in Essex County.

Abdullah remained held on $2 million bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, maintaining a drug production facility, possession of heroin and marijuana possession.

 

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