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Julious's murder went unsolved for 16 years -- until authorities announced that technological advances and a shared mission among various agencies and law enforcement forensic experts cracked the cold case.
Breyon Goodman, 36, of Trenton, and Jason Howard, 41, of Providence, R.I. killed Julious during a robbery near his Ewing home on May 9, 2008, they said.
Members of the U.S. Marshals NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force captured Goodman in Trenton on April 14, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced in tandem with Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri on Monday, April 22.
They charged him with murder, felony murder -- which is a homicide committed during the commission of a crime -- and robbery, the attorney general wrote in a release.
A complaint accusing Howard of the same crimes was served to him in a Rhode Island state prison, where records show he's serving time for domestic violence convictions.
Members of the New Jersey Attorney General's Cold Case Network worked with their colleagues from the Mercer County Homicide Task Force to crack the case, Platkin said.
“For 16 years the senseless, cruel death of Leroy Julious has gone unsolved,” Platkin said. "But law enforcement did not forget, and did not give up. We hope the charges bring a measure of relief to the victim's grieving loved ones.”
“Dogged detective work, technological advances, inter-agency cooperation, and a shared, unflagging desire for answers and accountability for this terrible crime have brought about these charges,” said Thomas J. Eicher, the executive director of the state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.
Julious, 47, apparently had bought some new clothes for himself and things for his son with some of the bonus money, authorities said at the time.
He was robbed soon after, investigators said, noting that his pockets had been turned inside out.
Ewing police found Julious dead of severe head trauma, having been punched, kicked and viciously stomped, investigators said.
He was beaten to death in the garage carport of a nearby house and his body dragged to the empty gravel lot, Platkin said.
Curiously, Howard was standing outside a vehicle near the scene, watching the action with other onlookers, when police pulled up, the attorney general said.
The New Jersey State Police Central Regional Laboratory, which continues to apply new advances to unsolved cases, helped identify Julious's accused killers through analysis of DNA and other evidence collected at the scene, Platkin said.
The attorney general and Onofri, the Mercer prosecutor, commended the staff there, along with the New Jersey Cold Case Task Force, the AG's Office of Public Integrity and Accountability and Onofri's office.
They also thanked the NJ State Police Office of Forensic Sciences, the U.S. Marshals NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force, the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and the Ewing Police Department.
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