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TRENTON
–Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that a Trenton man pleaded guilty
today to leading a network that trafficked
guns to Trenton from the Eastern Shore of
Virginia. The defendant was linked to guns
recovered in connection with several homicide
investigations and a narcotics investigation.
According
to Director Taylor, Trayle Beasley, 30,
of Trenton, pleaded guilty to a first-degree
charge of leader of a firearms trafficking
network before Superior Court Judge Pedro
J. Jimenez Jr. in Mercer County. In pleading
guilty, Beasley admitted that he trafficked
approximately 50 guns to Trenton from Virginia,
including at least one AK-47 assault weapon.
The state will recommend that he be sentenced
to 12 to 14 years in prison. The charge
was contained in a May 21, 2010 indictment
that also charged a second New Jersey man
and three Virginia men.
Beasley
is scheduled to be sentenced on May 31 by
Superior Court Judge Mitchel E. Ostrer.
Deputy Attorney General Russell Curley prosecuted
the case and took the guilty plea for the
Division of Criminal Justice.
The
New Jersey State Police - ATF Joint Firearms
Task Force and Division of Criminal Justice
led the investigation. The task force led
by the State Police and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives also
includes the Trenton Police, Mercer County
Sheriff’s Office and Ocean County
Prosecutor’s Office. Those agencies
worked with the Hamilton Police (Mercer
County), East Windsor Police and Eastern
Shore (Va.) Drug Task Force, including the
Virginia State Police and Northampton and
Accomack County Sheriff’s Departments.
The
weapons linked to Beasley included the gun
used in the gang-related drive-by shooting
on June 7, 2009 that killed 13-year-old
Tamrah Leonard during a block party in Trenton,
and the gun used in the murder of Tracey
Crews, 23, inside his home in Trenton on
Sept. 12, 2008.
“This
is a textbook example of how our partnership
with the New Jersey State Police and ATF
can eliminate a conduit by which guns are
entering New Jersey and going directly into
the hands of violent criminals,” said
Attorney General Dow. “Multiple guns
linked to violent crimes were put into the
eTrace system and traced to Beasley, who
now faces a lengthy prison sentence.”
“Seventy-five
percent of the crime guns in New Jersey
come from out of state, and Virginia is
the second biggest source state,”
said Director Taylor. “Trayle Beasley
is precisely the type of defendant we are
seeking to take off the street through our
efforts to fight illicit gun trafficking.”
“This
investigation and prosecution is another
endorsement of a statewide strategy that
targets gun violence from two directions,
focusing upon both the felons who use the
guns in their hands and also upon the criminal
profiteers who illegally put those guns
in their hands,” said Colonel Rick
Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey
State Police.
“This plea is a clear investigative
success for all agencies involved and a
win-win for our communities,” said
Special Agent in Charge Matthew W. Horace
of ATF’s Newark Field Division. “It
represents one less criminal firearms trafficker,
dozens less illegal firearms on our streets
terrorizing our communities and a clear
message that if you illegally traffic arms
into New Jersey, we will investigate you,
prosecute you and you will receive a lengthy
and appropriate prison sentence.”
Beasley also pleaded guilty today to a charge
of unlawful possession of a handgun, which
was filed by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s
Office in connection with an armed robbery
in East Windsor in March 2009. He faces
a sentence of five years in prison, with
three years of parole ineligibility, to
be served concurrently with the sentence
for the leader charge.
In
pleading guilty to the leader charge, Beasley
admitted that he solicited individuals in
the Eastern Shore of Virginia, where he
had lived, to provide him with guns, which
he brought to New Jersey to sell illegally.
The
case stems from NJ Trace, a first-in-the-nation
partnership of the Attorney General’s
Office, State Police and ATF to trace crime
guns recovered in New Jersey using ATF’s
national eTrace system. The Attorney General
requires that information on all guns seized
by police in New Jersey be entered into
eTrace for tracking within 24 hours. In
a separate case resulting from the program,
Williams James Ivery, 30, was sentenced
on April 20 to three years of probation
and 364 days in jail for unlawfully disposing
of two handguns in New Jersey that he bought
in Texas while stationed there in the Army,
and mailing a third gun to two men in New
Jersey. Deputy Attorney General Cassandra
Serentino prosecuted that case.
In
the Beasley case, two other men named in
the May 21, 2010 indictment have pleaded
guilty. Bobby Lee Henderson, 24, of Townsend,
Va., and Larry Nottingham, 28, of Eastville,
Va., pleaded guilty to unlawful possession
of a weapon and are scheduled to be sentenced
on May 3. They face sentences of probation,
in addition to the jail time they have served
since their arrests last year.
Charges
are pending against Amoi Smith, 21, of Cranbury,
and Johnathan Johnson, 28, of Cape Charles,
Va. It is alleged that Johnson would either
purchase or gather weapons for Beasley or
would coordinate meetings for Beasley, during
which Beasley would purchase weapons from
others in the Eastern Shore. Smith allegedly
traveled with Beasley on trips to get guns.
The indictment is merely an accusation and
those men are presumed innocent until proven
guilty.
The
investigation revealed that Beasley sold
guns to drug dealers and gang members in
Trenton. He preferred to deal in revolvers
because they do not leave shell casings
at crime scenes. He was indicted in connection
with 12 guns, including eight handguns,
two shotguns and two rifles. Five of the
guns were seized by the Maryland State Police
on Nov. 16, 2008, when they stopped Beasley’s
car as he drove through Maryland. Beasley
served a one-year prison sentence in Maryland
for unlawful possession of those guns. The
other seven guns were recovered by police
in New Jersey in connection with crimes
and traced through the NJ Trace program.
Supervising
Deputy Attorney General Andrew M. Butchko
presented the case to the state grand jury.
Attorney General Dow thanked the supervisors
and agents of ATF who conducted the investigation,
as well as all of the members of the State
Police - ATF Joint Firearms Task Force and
other participating agencies, including
these members of the New Jersey State Police:
Detective Sgt. Eric Barlow, Detective Sgt.
Brian Duross, Detective Brian Ruane and
Detective Marc Friedenberger. She also credited
Detective Gary Britton of the Trenton Police,
Detective Jeff Dorian of the East Windsor
Police, and members of the Eastern Shore
Drug Task Force, including Scott Wade of
the Virginia State Police, Lt. Timothy Reibel
of the Virginia State Police, Detective
Steve Lewis of the Northampton County Sheriff’s
Department, and Detective Wayne Greer of
the Accomack County Sheriff’s Department.
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