Co-defendants finally admit their roles in 2008 Tracy Crews homicide
TRENTON >> No need for a retrial.
Nigil “Youngin” Dawson and William “Paperboy” Brown have pleaded guilty for their roles in the September 2008 robbery and killing of 23-year-old Tracy Crews.
Dawson, 37, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter on Feb. 19, admitting he fatally shot Crews inside a Trenton residence.
Brown, 36, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery on Sept. 24, 2020, admitting he aided and abetted Dawson in the violent crime, court records show.
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw sentenced both defendants on March 26, punishing Dawson with 18 years of incarceration and Brown with 13 years in state prison — far less than the original sentence that called for 50 years of imprisonment.
A trial jury originally found both men guilty of murder, robbery and a weapons offense in 2015; a Superior Court judge subsequently sentenced both defendants to 50 years in the slammer.
The New Jersey Supreme Court, however, in February 2019 vacated their convictions and called for a new trial because Dawson and Brown “were deprived of a fair trial.”
“There was never a second trial,” Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Grillo said Friday in an interview with The Trentonian. “Crews’ family has dealt with this since 2008. This has been ongoing in some fashion for 13 years. Obviously the sentence is not the 50 years. If there is any comfort, they were able to hear the defendants admit what they’ve done.”
During the 2015 murder trial, defense attorneys for Dawson and Brown relied upon a third-party guilt defense that implicated Crews’ wife of orchestrating his murder.
For Sheena RobinsonCrews, Grillo said, “I think it was comforting for her to hear somebody finally acknowledge she had not played a role in her husband’s death.”
Brown’s plea agreement called for 15 years of incarceration and required his cooperation in the case, according to Grillo.
Yet Warshaw sentenced Brown to 13 years in state prison primarily because of his willingness to cooperate, according to Grillo, who said Brown’s plea agreement paved the way for Dawson’s guilty plea.
Despite their recent prison sentences, Brown is scheduled to be released next year and Dawson may be eligible for parole in 2026, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections.
That’s because Dawson and Brown both received 3,580 days of jail credit for being in custody for nearly 10 years since their June 2011 arrests.
Crews was shot late on the night of Sept. 12, 2008, and died at the hospital in the early morning hours of the next day. Nearly three years later, police charged Dawson and Brown with murder and weapons offenses in connection with the homicide.
“They have already spent a significant period of time incarcerated for the crime,” Grillo said of Dawson and Brown.
In addition to prison time, Judge Warshaw ordered Dawson and Brown to pay more than $7,000 in fees and fines, including $2,000 in restitution, according to the judgments of conviction.
Brown previously pleaded guilty to first-degree kidnapping in April 2018, admitting his role in the January 2011 abduction and murder of 33-year-old Dardar Paye, a U.S. Army veteran slain in Trenton. A Superior Court judge sentenced Brown to 10 years of incarceration in that case, records show.