Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey announced today that a Franklin Township man was convicted of fatally shooting a Perth Amboy man on Valentine’s Day in 2015.
Jahmmel Cephas, 35, of the Franklin Park section of the Township, was found guilty of aggravated manslaughter for fatally shooting Richard Pryce, 31, of Perth Amboy.
The defendant was also convicted of unlawful possession of a handgun, possession of a firearm with a purpose to use it unlawfully against the person of another, hindering his own apprehension, and tampering with physical evidence.
In addition, the defendant was found guilty of being a certain person prohibited from having a weapon, having been previously convicted in four separate unrelated criminal cases, including a 2004 aggravated assault case in which he pointed a handgun at and pistol whipped the victim.
Cephas is facing an extended prison term of 30 years to life when he is sentenced in New Brunswick on December 15, 2017, by Superior Court Judge Colleen Flynn.
During a trial that began on August 15, 2017 Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Brian Shevlin and Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Dize presented evidence and testimony showing Cephas shot Pryce multiple times on Amboy Avenue at the Barclay Street intersection following an argument at a bar on Amboy Avenue on February 14, 2015.
After being shot, the victim returned to the bar and was taken by friends to Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy Division. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 3:02 a.m.
Cephas fled with the handgun after the shooting and remained at large until he was apprehended in DeKalb County, Georgia on March 20, 2015.