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Jaheim Robinson, an 18-year-old college student, “acted as an accomplice in the fatal hit on Vidal Nieves” in the area of Essex and Lehigh streets on Nov. 12, 2022, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
Robinson was taken into custody on March 6 and sent to the Bergen County Jail to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack, Musella said.
He’s with charged with murder, attempted murder (for the wounding of a second man in the shooting), conspiracy and illegal weapons possession.
Robinson joins two other men being held in the county lockup on the same charges – the accused shooter, Dior Alston, a laborer from South Hackensack, and Malik Abel, an electrician from Maywood. Both are 21 years old.
Rayshawn Powel-Myhand, a 19-year-old cashier from Hackensack, has remained free after being charged with hindering their arrests.
Nieves, a single dad who worked at a dollar store in Passaic, was stalked by his killers, investigators said.
Surveillance video shows them following Nieves down Essex Street in a vehicle before Alston -- dressed all in black, including a ski mask -- hops out, runs across the street and shoots him outside the Minyety Barbershop, they said.
Nieves made it to Lehigh Street near Sussex Street, where he collapsed, according to an affidavit on file in Superior Court in Hackensack.
He was rushed into surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center and died less than two hours later.
A second male victim, 45, was grazed and refused medical attention at the scene, responders said.
Detectives from the prosecutor’s Major Crimes Unit have been working the case with Hackensack police. The killers tried to ditch the gun, their clothing and the vehicle with help from Powel-Myhand, they said.
Although the charges indicate the shooting was planned, Musella hasn’t yet disclosed what the investigators believe was the motive.
Born in Virginia Beach, VA, Nieves lived in Jersey City, East Rutherford and Hackensack before moving to Maywood four years ago, according to his obituary.
He is survived by his parents, Ricardo and Elizabeth, his daughter, Lillyannie Nieves, a sister, Ariela Nieves, grandfather, Victor Cordova and grandmother, Doitilia Nieves.
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