Newark – Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino announced today that Rick King, 34, of Newark was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for killing Amit Patel, an Irvington store clerk.
The Honorable Mark Ali, Judge of the Superior Court, sentenced King to life for the first-degree murder. Authorities said he was also sentenced to a consecutive 40-year sentence for the robbery.
In December of 2017, an Essex County jury convicted King of murder, witness tampering, armed robbery, aggravated assault on a police officer and weapons offenses. The evidence at trial showed on the afternoon of Feb. 15, 2015 King went to the Roseway Liquors in the 700 block of Lyons Avenue and shot Patel in the head.
Patel, 28, of Edison died at the scene. Patel was the lone witness to a robbery previously committed by King. The state’s position was that King killed Patel to prevent him from testifying in the robbery case. The robbery occurred on Halloween 2013.
While imposing sentence, Judge Ali noted that King had 11 prior arrests and had been convicted of felonies on five prior occasions. Those crimes included possession of an illegal weapon and possession of narcotics.
Essex County Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Roger Imhof, who tried the case with Assistant Prosecutor Mira Ohm, said, “This case came together because of the hard work of the ECPO investigative team and the Irvington Police Department.’’
Assistant Prosecutor Ohm said, “As tragic and senseless as this murder was we hope the life sentence without possibility of parole will give the family some semblance of closure after all these years.’’