By: Richard L. Smith
A Newark man has been sentenced to 61½ years in state prison for his role in two separate shootings, including one that claimed the life of a city resident in 2023, according to a statement released by Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II.
Dajuan Fiester, 40, of Newark, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Arre following a jury conviction in April 2025 on 11 criminal counts, including first-degree murder.
The charges stem from shootings that occurred in 2023 and 2022.
Prosecutors said Fiester was responsible for a May 7, 2023 shooting near the Paraiso Bar on Orange Street, where Julius Ferguson, 38, of Newark, was fatally shot.
Two other victims, Daniel Campbell, 22, of Newark, and Michael Newby, 25, of East Orange, were injured in the same incident.
Ballistics evidence later linked one of the firearms used in the 2023 shooting to an earlier incident on North 5th Street in Newark on August 6, 2022.
Fiester was also convicted on second-degree assault and weapons charges related to that shooting.
“While no amount of time can ever replace a life lost, we hope that this sentence brings some form of closure to Mr. Ferguson’s family and the other victims,” Assistant Prosecutor Julianne Bollettieri said. “Gun violence cannot be tolerated, and these senseless acts cannot go unpunished.”
Under New Jersey’s No Early Release Act, Fiester must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible
for parole.