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48°
Saturday, apr 27
Tag:
Extradition
Police & Fire
Justice
Delayed
: Accused Killer Of Bayonne Mom Finally Extradited To US To Face Murder Charges
A fugitive wanted for the brutal slaying of a Bayonne mom studying to be a nurse 3½ years ago has finally been extradited to the United States to face murder charges. Erick Acosta, 35, fled to Colombia after beating 40-year-old Crystal Ojeda to death with an object that local authorities have yet to identify in a public housing project on Lord Avenue near the Kill Van Kull. It was shortly before 1 p.m. Oct. 9, 2020 that city police responding to a request for a welfare check found the brutally beaten Ojeda. The mother of two, formerly of Jersey City, had been struck in the head and on her …
Police & Fire
Florida Man Who Killed Infant, Young Mom Arrested In Routine NJ Traffic Stop: Cops
It took almost three years, but with an assist from police in Linden, officers in Florida finally got their man. Doujon Duwayne Griffiths, 23, who had been wanted in Orange County, Florida since September 2021 for killing 20-year-old Massania Malcom and leaving her 1-year-old daughter to die in a hot car, was recently arrested in Linden following a traffic stop, the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Central Florida said. During the traffic stop, Linden police discovered Griffiths had an outstanding warrant out for first degree murder, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. He will be extr…
News
‘90 Day Fiance’ PA Barber Conviction Withdrawn Due Juror, Witness Interactions: DA
A former Pennsylvania barber who appeared in "90 Day Fiance” and “90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?” who was extradited from Florida over six months after he was caught with fentanyl by US Marshals — has had one of his convictions dismissed due to contact between a juror and witness, the Cumberland County District Attorney Seán M. McCormack announced on Friday, March 23, 2024. Michael Anthony Baltimore, 44 of Carlisle, PA, had been convicted on Feb. 1, 2024, in a domestic violence case from Jan. 7, 2021, but the charges were dismissed and the case was vacate…
Police & Fire
Fugitive Wanted For Murdering Fellow Out-Of-Stater In NJ Captured In Colombia
The long arm of the law reached 2,400 miles to South America, where authorities arrested a fugitive wanted for shooting a Yonkers resident dead in Englewood late last summer. Joshua Alvarado, 29, of New York City was captured in Medellin last Saturday, Feb. 17, with assistance from U.S. Marshals and the Colombian National Police, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Alvarado is charged with murder, felony murder, armed burglary, aggravated assault and weapons offenses, among other counts, the prosecutor said. Englewood police responding to a 911 call to a residence on Mevan Avenue …
Police & Fire
Gotcha
! Manhunt Ends In Out-Of-State Capture Of Accused NJ Child Molester
An accused child molester from Bergen County who remained on the run for two years was captured by US Marshals in South Carolina, authorities said. Cesar de Jesus Perez Acosta, 37, of River Vale is accused of touching the pre-teen victim's breasts and vagina in October 2021, court records show. River Vale police obtained a warrant for Perez Acosta’s arrest following interviews with those present at the time of the alleged assault, a criminal complaint filed in Superior Court in Hackensack says. A DNA swab of the girl's breast provided physical evidence, the complaint says without elaborat…
Police & Fire
Wanted Raritan Sex Offender Captured At CT Motel: Police
A 41-year-old New Jersey man wanted for failing to register as a sex offender was captured at a motel in Connecticut on Thursday, Oct. 5, authorities said. Juan Marales, of Raritan in Somerset County, was apprehended by police after being named the Somerset County's Prosecutor's Office Fugitive of the Month for October. The prosecutor's office's Fugitive Unit along with the Norwalk Police Department were able to determine that Morales was a motel in Norwalk, authorities said. Marales surrendered to police without incident and was taken into custody by Norwalk Police and processed at …
Police & Fire
NJ Restaurant Owner In $90,000 Wire Transfer Scam Flees To Brazil, Returned To US
A Fairview restaurant owner who claimed to be sending wire transfers for customers to Brazil pocketed at least $90,000 before fleeing the country, authorities said. Joanistel Ramos, 59, who owns Brasil and Brazil restaurant on Anderson Avenue, stiffed at least 15 local victims out of $40,000 in wire transfers that were never sent, Fairvew Police Capt. Michael Martic said. "She basically printed out a bogus generic receipt and put the money in her pocket," the captain said. Ramos, of Cliffside Park, also defrauded a money transfer company in Newark called Lyons Express out of an additional …
Police & Fire
Somerset Fugitive Charged With Attempted Murder Caught In PA: Prosecutors
A Somerset County man accused of five counts of attempted homicide was arrested in Easton, Pennsylvania last week, according to authorities. Cristobal Avila, 32, of Plainfield, is also charged with unlawful weapon possession related to an April 2021 incident in North Plainfield, said the Prosecutor's Office. He was arrested by Easton police on Saturday, Sept. 30 and will be returned to New Jersey pending extradition and prosecution of other charges in Pennsylvania, officials said. Avila was Somerset County's fugitive of the month in September, they noted. Details of his …
Police & Fire
Man Sexually Abused Girls Ages 8 To 15 In Raritan Then Relocated To Texas, Police Say
A 41-year-old Texas man has been arrested on accusations he sexually abused two minors in Somerset County. Janakiraman Somasundaram sexually assaulted one victim, a girl, who was between the ages of 8 and 11 at the time of the incidents, Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said. A second victim told detectives she was sexually abused by Somasundaram when she was 15, McDonald said. Both instances happened in Raritan. Somasundaram was subsequently charged with various counts of second-degree sexual assault, third-degree endangering the welfare of a minor and fourth-degree c…
News
MD Murder Suspect Captured In New Jersey: Police
A man implicated in a Maryland murder was captured in New Jersey and being held pending extradition, authorities said. Capitol Heights resident Milton Alarcon-Ruiz, 21, is the third person to be implicated in the fatal shooting of Hyattsville's Mynor Galvez Juarez, 29, on Friday, June 16, police in Prince George's County, MD said. Police did not say where in the Garden State Alarcon-Ruiz was being held. Alarcon-Ruiz was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and related charges for his role in the killing. Otoniel Morales, 34, and Edwin Roque Alarcon, 19, both of Se…
Police & Fire
Lakewood Man Extradited To NJ In GF's Killing: Prosecutor
A Lakewood man has been extradited to New Jersey in the slaying of his girlfriend, authorities said. John Filistovich, 59, was transferred from Salisbury, Maryland, to Ocean County Jail in connection with the murder of Betty Perry, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer. On May 30, at approximately 12:15 p.m., Lakewood Township Police responded to a residence on Thornbury Court to conduct a welfare check on Perry, 60. Police found the deceased body of a female, later identified as Perry, on the floor of the bedroom. A 2015 Hyundai Elantra belonging to Per…
Police & Fire
NJ Man Who Killed GF Found On Maryland Roadside: Prosecutor
A 59-year-old Lakewood man has been charged with killing his live-in girlfriend before fleeing to Maryland, authorities said. John Filistovich was charged on Thursday, June 1 with murder in connection with the beating and suffocation of Betty Perry, 60, of Lakewood, they said. On Tuesday, May 30, at approximately 12:15 p.m., Lakewood Township Police responded to a residence on Thornbury Court to conduct a welfare check on Perry, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer. Police found the dead body of a woman, later identified as Perry, on the floor of the bed…
News
El Chapo Sons, Dubbed ‘Pioneers' Of Fentanyl Epidemic, Charged In Massive Sinaloa Cartel Case
Four sons of notorious druglord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman are among more than two dozen members of Mexico's reigning Sinaloa cartel charged in a massive fentanyl-trafficking offensive announced by federal officials on Friday. The infamous quartet known as the Chapitos – each of whom had $5 million U.S. bounties placed on their heads – were dubbed “the pioneers” of fentanyl’s introduction to American users by DEA Administrator Anne Milgram during an April 14 news conference in Washington, D.C. “Death and destruction are central to their whole operation,” said Milgram, a former New Jersey a…
Police & Fire
US Marshals Capture NJ Man Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Teen Girl In Puerto Rico: Prosecutor
A 31-year-old Hudson County man accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in 2021 has been arrested in Puerto Rico, authorities said. Members of the US Marshals Puerto Rico Violent Fugitive Task Force captured Jose Alfredo Garcia on Wednesday, March 22, at approximately 7:50 p.m. in San German, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez. Garcia had been sought for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female victim in Kearny on December 20, 2021. Following an investigation, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit charged Garcia with sexual assault, luring/entic…
News
PA Man Sentenced For Strangling South Jersey Woman
A 42-year-old man from Pennsylvania has been sentenced to 55 years in New Jersey State Prison for strangling a woman whose naked body was found on the side of the road in 2014, authorities said. Timothy Wright, 42, of Chambersburg, PA, was sentenced Friday, Feb 17 in the murder of 25-year-old Joyce Vanderhoff, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office. Vanderhoff's naked body was dumped on the side of a Hamilton Township road in February 2014. A jury previously convicted Wright for first-degree murder after a two-and-a-half-week- trial that commenced this past October.…
News
Southern Fugitives Charged With Posing As Feds In Violent Bergen Home Invasion Brought To NJ
UPDATE: Three Georgia men charged earlier this month with shooting a Bergen County resident while posing as FBI agents during a summer home invasion have been brought to New Jersey to face charges. Two others remained held down South pending the outcome of extradition proceedings. Aaron Thomas Perry, 53, of Dunwoody, Ali Sadeeq Muhammad, 33, of Atlanta, and Roderick Moracle Carmichael, 50, of Stockbridge will remain held in the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack while the case against them and two other co-defendants proceeds. They were brought up separately over the past several days -- Car…
News
Gotcha
! Port Authority Officers Nab Massachusetts Murder Suspect Boarding Bus In NYC
A pair of diligent Port Authority police officers at the midtown Manhattan bus terminal captured a man wanted for killing a woman in Massachusetts. Victor Carter, 39, had been the subject of a manhunt in the slaying of Amber Buckner, a 40-year-old mother of four in Stoughton, MA, last Tuesday, Dec. 13. PAPD Officers Robert Greff and Robert Pelc were on patrol in the area of Gate 81 on the Port Authority Bus Terminal's lower level when they spotted Carter trying to hop a Greyhound at 1:41 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, agency Spokeswoman Lenis Valens said. He apparently was bound for Boston, Vale…
Police & Fire
'Distance Was His Sanctuary': 2003 Murder Suspect Who Fled To Guatemala Captured By US Marshals
A fugitive who's been on the lam for years and captured last March is back in New Jersey after being extradited, authorities said. Fausto Ramiro Santos Carillo, 56, fled to Guatemala sometime after the Plainfield murder of 49-year-old Martha Morales in July 23, 2003, Union County Prosecutor William A. Daniel and Plainfield Police Director James T. Abney said. She was found in the East Third Street apartment she shared with Carillo, having suffered multiple stab wounds, authorities said. Following the murder, Fausto Carillo fled the area. In February 2018, the Union County Prosecutor’…
News
Ex-Bergen Resident Seized By Marshals, Brought To NJ To Face Child Sex Assault Charges
A former Bergen County resident was seized by U.S. Marshals and extradited to New Jersey this week to face charges of repeatedly sexually assaulting an underage teenager several years ago. Alex L. Wheeler, a 34-year-old logistics manager, is being held in the Bergen County Jail on three counts of sexual assault on a 16-year-old victim, along with child endangerment through sexual conduct, in Northvale in 2016, records show. The teen’s mother went to police two years later but didn’t want to prosecute, a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack says. Now an adult, the alleged victi…
Police & Fire
NJ Murder Suspect Who Dumped Body In Woods Nabbed In Philadelphia: Prosecutor
A man who shot his victim and then apparently dumped his victim's body in a wooded area of Central Jersey was captured nearly two years later in Philadelphia, authorities announced. Juaquan S. Fitzgerald, 33, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Duane S. Banks, 27, whose body was found in a wooded area in Franklin Township on April 29, 2020, Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said. Banks' body was found in a wooded area toward the back of a home near Park Street around 6:40 p.m. that day, police said. The medical examiner's office rule…
News
'Armed, Dangerous' Fugitive Wanted For Shooting GF In Texas Captured At GWB
An armed fugitive who fled Texas to New York City after shooting his girlfriend was captured by Bergen County detectives at the entrance to the lower level of the George Washington Bridge, authorities said. Dwayne Kevin Sharlow, 55, was swiftly scooped up by Narcotic Task Force members who stopped his rented car at 1:52 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella confirmed Monday. They were assisted by a Bergen County Regional SWAT Team, he said. Sharlow, of Prosper, TX, had apparently come up Route 95, headed for New York City, authorities said. The victim survived after …
News
Hudson Driver Caught After Crashing Car Stolen From NY Into Backyard Off GS Parkway: Paramus PD
Paramus police captured a Jersey City ex-con who crashed a car stolen out of Orange County into the backyard of a home off the Garden State Parkway and then took off on foot, authorities said. The 2018 Nissan Maxima -- which had just been reported stolen out of Monroe, NY -- barreled off the southbound Parkway exit ramp and into private property on Highland Avenue around 7 p.m. Monday, Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said. Officers Nicholas Perna and Clario Sampson found Javon Reaves, 29, who'd bailed out and was walking on Alden Road a short time later, the chief said. He at first …
Police & Fire
Man Shot By Wife Over Allegations He Molested Kids At Her Daycare Facing Charges
An arrest warrant has been issued for the Maryland man shot by his wife in a Washington, DC hotel room over allegations he sexually abused at least three children at her daycare facility, authorities said. James Weems Jr., 57, of Randallstown, was shot by his wife, Shanteari Weems, after she confronted him over the alleged abuse in a room at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Monday, July 25, according to multiple reports. Officials had already begun an investigation into the allegations at the time of the shooting, Baltimore County police said. Weems, who owned Lil Kidz Kastle in…
News
Former NJ Resident Convicted Of Kidnapping Son
A former New Jersey resident faces federal prison time after being convicted of kidnapping his son and failing to return him from India. Amitkumar Kanubhai Patel, 38, a naturalized U.S. citizen who previously lived in Edison, fled with the child in July 2017 before settling in Vadodara, federal authorities said. He was captured in England three years later. Patel had lived with the child’s mother from August 2015 through July 2017. Their son was born in November 2016. According to her, Patel wanted to take the boy to India to introduce him to his parents and obtain DNA testing that he sai…
News
Suicidal NJ Man Who Turned Up In ER Charged With Shooting Bronx Uncle Dead
UPDATE: A Fair Lawn man accused of shooting his uncle dead in the Bronx earlier this month was being held on Riker’s Island after being extradited to New York from New Jersey to face justice, authorities said. Jonathan Mejia, 24, was brought from the Bergen County Jail to Bronx Criminal Court, where he was formally charged Wednesday with murder, manslaughter and weapons possession. Prosecutors said Mejia shot Daniel Valdez, 43, in victim's home near West 234th Street in the borough's Kingsbridge section after an argument got physical on May 2. Valdez had let Mejia in, then was shot in the …
Police & Fire
Jersey Shore Man Gets 7 Years Behind Bars For Leaving Fatal Crash Scene: Prosecutor
A 28-year-old man from Ocean County has been sentenced to seven years in New Jersey state prison for leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle crash, authorities said. Roberto Alcazar-Sanchez, of Jackson, was sentenced as a result to a previously entered guilty plea to knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer. On Dec. 24, 2020, at approximately 6 p.m., Jackson police were summoned to Cedar Swap Road and Interstate-195 for a motor vehicle crash with serious injuries. An in…
Police & Fire
'The Rabbi,' Rikers Island Inmate Charged In Eagle Rock Reservation Murder
Two out-of-state men have been charged with murder after bringing a New York man from his apartment to the Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange and shooting him dead earlier this year, authorities said. Michael Verdel, 71, of the Bronx and Posley Sulaiman, 31, of Detroit, MI, gunned down Steels on a hiking trail at the West Orange reservation March 4, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II, said. Verdel, who is referred to as “the rabbi’’ by those who know him, was taken into custody in New York and has been extradited to New Jersey. He was being held on cha…
News
Captured
: Violent Jersey City Fugitive Wanted In Maryland Busted For Shoplifting In Wayne
A violent fugitive from Jersey City who's wanted in Maryland remained held in the Passaic County Jail after he was busted for shoplifting, authorities said. Authorities in Anne Arundel County, MD are seeking the extradition of Jonathan D. Peralta, 37, to answer a theft charge there, Wayne Police Detective Capt. Dan Daly said. Officers also discovered outstanding warrants out of Hoboken, Paramus, East Brunswick and Lawrence Township after security at Macy’s in the Willowbrook Mall seized him, Daly said. Peralta has an extensive criminal history that includes an arrest for a gunpoint robber…
News
Captured
! Prisoner Who Escaped From NJ Police HQ Nabbed In Rhode Island
GOTCHA! The manhunt for a purported MS-13 gang member who escaped from Palisades Park police headquarters in handcuffs three days ago ended with his capture in Rhode Island, authorities announced. Working around the clock, Palisades Park police "were right with" Adilson Estrada-Garcia of Cliffside Park when he arrived in Providence to stay with a cousin, Detective Lt. Alex Monteleone said. Members of the US Marshals Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force were notified and nabbed the 24-year-old Guatemalan national without incident at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, March 6, Monteleone said. Estrada-G…
News
Ex-Fox News Producer Charged In NY Federal Court With Helping Sanctioned Russian Oligarch
A founding Fox News producer was indicted in federal court in Manhattan for violating U.S. sanctions against Russia when he helped an oligarch there launch a propaganda network, the Justice Department announced. John Hanick, a 71-year-old U.S. citizen, was discretely seized in London early last month, federal authorities disclosed with the unsealing of an indictment against him on Thursday, March 3. Justice Department officials said they're seeking Hanick's extradition for helping Konstantin Malofeyev establish Tsargrad TV after the oligarch was sanctioned for his role in financing pro-Mosc…
Police & Fire
Jersey Shore Man Admits Leaving Fatal Crash, Fleeing To Mexico: Prosecutor
A 27-year-old man from Ocean County has admitted leaving the scene of a fatal crash before fleeing to Mexico, authorities said. Roberto Alcazar-Sanchez, of Jackson, pleaded guilty to knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death on Thursday, Feb. 24, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer. On Dec. 24, 2020, at approximately 6:00 p.m., Jackson police responded to I-195 for a motor vehicle crash with serious injuries. An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Vehicular Homicide Unit and Jackson Township Po…
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