Convicted killer mulls 25 years in another slaying
TRENTON >> A reputed Bloods gang member who is already serving an 18year sentence for executing an ex-con who was ready to testify against another gangster could spent another quarter century behind bars if he accepts the rap killing another city man.
Mayleek McInnis is imprisoned for the aggravated manslaughter of fellow gangster Shawn Travis, who was shot in the head on April Fools’ Day in 2008.
Now prosecutors want him to spend 25 years in prison for the 2005 shooting death of Omar Murphy, who was gunned down near the intersection of Stuyvesant and Ellsworth avenues
Two years ago, prosecutors said witnesses had stepped forward and pegged McInnis as the killer.
McInnis has been incarcerated Northern State Prison in Newark since 2010 after he admitting to killing Travis.
His attorney, public defender Jessica Lyons, said Monday at a status hearing, she may extend a counter offer to prosecutors at their next court appearance in November.
That is the accept-or-reject date for McInnis to let prosecutors know whether he plans to take the proposed plea deal for Murphy’s killing.
The 25-year offer would run likely supersede the 18year prison term he is already serving.
According to Trentonian archives, McInnis had only been out of prison for 20 days when he killed Travis, 34, a convicted robber and drug dealer who had been released from prison himself only 18 months before he was gunned down.
Witnesses told detectives they saw McInnis shoot the unarmed Travis in the head and back as he stood at the outside his apartment on Coolidge Avenue.
McInnis claimed he shot Travis because he feared he was about to be robbed. Prosecutors said the real motive was to silence a possible witness to another gangland slaying in 2007.
Authorities said Travis was killed because rival Blood gangsters thought he was ready to testify against suspected Sex Money Murder hit man Willie Yeager, in the killing of Naquan Archie, 18.
Shortly before Travis’ murder, Mercer County Corrections officials intercepted a letter from Yeager in jail that some interpreted as an order to have Travis killed.