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Christian Nova of Englewood (above, right) “has lived in Bergen County his whole life, 21 years,” attorney Kevin W. Roe told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi in Hackensack. “His family — father, mother and brother — that he will live with when he gets out of jail are here to support him.”
Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi (FILE PHOTO)
The judge, in turn, told Roe to save his request for a reduction to $100,000 from $250,000 for a later date.
The two men charged in the shooting itself didn’t have lawyers during their first appearances today.
Questioned by the judge, Zakeer Roberts, 24, of East Orange (above, left) and 22-year-old Mario Ferreira of Newark (middle) said they had been interviewed as the first step toward having public defenders assigned to them.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
Roe entered a not-guilty plea for Nova. The judge entered the same for the other two.
Both Roberts and Ferreira remained held on $1 million bail each in the Bergen County Jail.
All three must post cash, and not 10%, and must surrender their passports should they make bail, said Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer of the Homicide Unit.
They’re also barred from any contact with the victims —
Gilbert Mercado, 21, who remained in critical condition at Hackensack University Medical Center after being shot several times, and John Newcomb, 20, who was struck once in the lower torso and was recovering, authorities said.
Nova is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and hindering apprehension. Roberts and Ferreira are charged with two counts each of attempted murder and two counts each of armed robbery, as well as armed burglary, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and several weapons offenses.
Roberts and Ferreira were armed Sunday morning when they went to the Westside Avenue house that both victims share, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said yesterday.
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CLIFFVIEW PILOT was the first to report both the shootings and the arrests:
- YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Two men were shot and wounded, one seriously, in the south end of Bergenfield this morning. READ MORE….
Mario Ferreira, Zakeer Roberts, Christian Nova (MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHSERIFF’S OFFICE)
- 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….
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Roberts was free on bail after being arrested in January by Essex County sheriff’s officers who said they found him with a slew of narcotics and a fully-loaded and defaced .45-caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun in a swerving car stopped in Branch Brook Park, records show. He also has several open warrants for his arrest.
Bergenfield police responded to a 911 call at the house just before 10 a.m. 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,” the prosecutor 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.
Nova was picked up Sunday night. Molinelli’s detectives arrested Roberts an Ferriera early yesterday afternoon with help from East Orange police and a Newark police SWAT team.
Molinelli said investigators “have yet to clarify” who shot whom. Neither gun had been recovered, he said.
“The investigation is still early and it anticipated that more details will be available in the days to come,” he said yesterday.
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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