A Union County jury has returned a guilty verdict against a man who shot and killed a 19-year-old Elizabeth man in July of 2019, Union County Prosecutor William A. Daniel, Elizabeth Police Director Earl Graves and Elizabeth Police Chief Giacomo Sacca jointly announced today.
According to county officials, Anthony Reciofigueroa, 27, of Jersey City, was found guilty Thursday of murder, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes following a three-week trial before Union County Superior Court Judge John Deitch.
County officials said that shortly after 7 p.m. on July 6, 2019, Elizabeth Police Department patrol units responded to a report of gunshots being fired on the 500 block of East Jersey Street.
According to officials, they found 19-year-old Carlos Rodriguez of Elizabeth on the sidewalk, having sustained a gunshot wound according to Union County Assistant Prosecutors Jillian Reyes and Sarah Turk, who prosecuted the case.
Officials said that Rodriguez was transported to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced dead the next day, Reyes and Turk said.
An investigation resulted in Reciofigueroa being identified as a suspect in the case, and he was eventually extradited from Vermont while incarcerated there on an unrelated matter.
According to county officials, at trial, it was revealed that Reciofigueroa came to Elizabeth approximately thirty minutes before the shooting in a black Chevy Malibu with Vermont license plates.
Officials said that witnesses, physical evidence and video surveillance in the area –which captured the shooting – presented over the course of the trial were able to definitively pinpoint Reciofigueroa as the killer, Reyes and Turk indicated.
Sentencing has been scheduled for Friday, August 5, before Judge Deitch, at which time Reciofigueroa can face a sentence of up to life in state prison.