Death penalty to be sought

Gang member is accused of killing teen in bedroom in 2012.

Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said his office will seek the death penalty against an Allentown gangster accused of killing a teen six years ago in the bedroom of his home, according to a notice of aggravating circumstances filed Thursday.

The notice says Quante L. Cruz, 28, should die if he’s convicted of first-degree murder in the Aug. 24, 2012, death of 17-year-old Kareem Fedd because Cruz “committed a killing while in the perpetration of a felony.”

Following a grand jury investigation, Cruz, a member of the New Street Goonies street gang, was charged in in July. Fedd was found in his Allentown home with several gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead a short time later at the hospital.

Besides homicide, Cruz, of the 900 block of West Hamilton Street, was also charged with conspiracy to commit homicide, burglary and carrying a concealed weapon without a license, all felonies, and persons not to possess a firearm, a misdemeanor.

Authorities have given few details about the investigation leading to the arrest, saying the case was investigated by the county’s grand jury. The grand jury’s presentment of the charges was ordered sealed by Judge Maria L. Dantos.

Fedd was shot in the thirdfloor bedroom at his home in the 1100 block of Fullerton Avenue, authorities say. In the charges filed against Cruz, police said the homicide was planned with two other members of his gang.

Authorities have never said how Cruz entered the home, but neighbors have said they believe someone climbed a fire escape and entered the bedroom.

In the months after his death, Fedd’s mother, Jeani Haskins, said she wanted justice for her son, but hoped it would come without bloodshed.

At the time, Haskins said her son had been involved in a gang for at least a year and more actively in the months before his killing. She said she didn’t condone his involvement, but she believed he did not bring it home with him.

Haskins came home from work around 4 a.m. and found her son bloody from multiple gunshot wounds in the bedroom of their home. Her screams of horror awoke the neighbors.

Fedd’s killing came two days after a shooting at New and Allen streets that left a teen paralyzed.

Authorities have never said if the shootings were connected, but the shooter in that case, Amir Featherson, a member of the Shotgun Crips street gang, was friends with Fedd.

Featherson, who has since been sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison after pleading no contest in that shooting, posted a photo of him and Fedd on his Facebook page the day Fedd was killed.

In the photo, they are both showing gang signs.