Pastor linked to man acquitted in Route 29 murder
TRENTON » The company self-ordained Pastor Terry Wells allegedly keeps isn’t holier-than-thou.
A city man who was acquitted in the notorious Route 29 murder is Wells’ codefendant in a pending insurance fraud case, prosecutors said and court records show.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office acknowledged that Andre Romero, 26, was charged last year with Wells in an apparent insurance fraud scheme.
The Trentonian obtained complaints written up by Detective Alicia Bergondo of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office charging both defendants with third-degree crimes for their roles in the Jan. 30, 2017 alleged insurance shakedown.
The case was brought against Wells and Romero, a known quantity in Trenton who can’t stay out of trouble, on Sept. 11, 2017, according to the complaints.
They are accused of being involved with filing a fictitious claim with Allstate Insurance. Wells allegedly hired an attorney to push the insurance claim.
Romero, known on the streets as “Ceto,” was acquitted in October 2016 in the sensational Route 29 slay case. He was arrested and charged with accused triggerman William “Bill Bill” Mitchell of being involved in the murder of Daquan Dowling.
Dowling got shot in the head and was killed instantly Jan. 30, 2012, as he drove along Route 29 in Trenton with passenger Morris Satchel.
Romero and Dowling were once friends, making it harder for Dowling’s mother to that the boy her son grew up was one of the men charged with his killing.
“In the beginning, I said ‘Ceto didn’t do it,’” Saundra Dowling told The Trentonian in a prior interview.
Dowling’s killing happened five years to the day before Romero was charged in the insurance fraud case with the selfproclaimed Rev. Wells. Besides the insurance fraud case, Romero has pending weapons charges, according to court records.
Wells, the founder of nonprofit My Brother’s Keeper Ministries in Trenton who has fallen into the crosshairs of local authorities, claimed he didn’t know Romero or anything about his past when reached Monday.
He previously promised he’d be vindicated in the insurance fraud case and doubled-down by accusing prosecutors of lying.
“I don’t even know this guy,” he said. “I don’t know why they say he’s my codefendant. They blatantly lied. I’m glad you told me this. That’s a lawsuit against them.”
The complaints alleged Wells and Romero had different roles in the scheme. Wells claimed he was a “pedestrian who was struck by his own vehicle” parked on Mechanics Avenue, where he lives, according to the complaint.
Romero claimed he “was a passenger in a vehicle that was involved in a car accident on Mechanics Avenue,” the complaint states.
The complaints state Wells and Romero’s get-rich scheme was foiled by “video surveillance” that showed Wells “was not struck by his vehicle or injured and that” Romero was “actually the driver” of the vehicle involved in the accident.
Wells claimed he and Romero didn’t team up to dupe and steal from the insurance company, and no one was inside his truck at the time of the accident.
The case hasn’t been indicted, but Romero has already pleaded guilty, according to prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Casey DeBlasio and court records.
The Trentonian attempted to obtain a recording of Romero’s guilty plea at a Jan. 11 pre-indictment conference before Judge Timothy Lydon, but the custodian couldn’t immediately locate the recording.
The prosecutor’s office couldn’t provide information about whether Rome-
ro’s plea is conditioned on him giving up Wells, who has his own checkered past including a conviction in South Carolina for accessory to murder.
Wells was sentenced in a theft case in which he was accused of bilking the estate of Joseph Wingate
out of $12,000 the authorities say was used to buy materials to rebuild his still-unopened church.
Wells’ troubles have been front and center because of his ties to mayoral candidate Paul Perez, chronicled in a recent Trentonian front-page spread when some of Perez’s opponents decried why the 2014 runnerup has allowed ex-cons like Wells and convicted
rapist Gustavo Garcia to work as volunteers on his campaigns.
Wells has fashioned himself as the urban Joel Osteen, the famed televangelist who runs Lakewood megachurch in Houston, but has encountered setbacks in getting his congregation up in Trenton.
In 2013, he purchased a massive Prospect Street warehouse from Capital
Health for $1, hoping to remake the degraded building into a “one-stop shop” for city residents led by the prison-to-thepulpit preacher.
Wells has tax issues with the city which claims he owes more than $200,000 in back taxes on his still-unopened church.
Wells refuses to pay the debt, contending he’s a tax-exempt nonprofit.
He temporarily had his
tax-exempt status yanked by the IRS for failing to file the necessary paperwork. But the agency has confirmed the tax-exempt status has been reinstated.
He said he’s done with politics and gave up stumping for Perez after The Trentonian’s story ran, choosing to focus his efforts on getting the church up and running.
But he still constantly
posts videos pumping up West Ward City Council candidate Shirley Gaines, who passed herself off as holding a doctorate in clinical religious studies.
Wells posted a video after the newspaper ran the story on Gaines saying he knew what it was like to have his name “dragged through the newspapers. … We don’t care what tabloids think.”