Crime & Justice
New Jersey woman sentenced to 95 years for shooting, strangling girlfriend, then burying her body
Jennifer Sweeney, 38, of Tinton Falls, N.J. has been sentenced to 95 years for the brutal murder of 41-year-old Tyrita Julius, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office announced Saturday.
Jennifer Sweeney, a New Jersey woman convicted of shooting and strangling her girlfriend to death then burying her body, has been sentenced.
Sweeney, 38, of Tinton Falls has been sentenced to 95 years for the murder of 41-year-old Tyrita Julius, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced Saturday.
“This sentencing is a fitting outcome to the prosecution of genuinely monstrous crimes,” Linskey said. “This defendant’s actions were callous, calculated, and vicious, and ended the life of a woman beloved by her family and friends. I sincerely thank the detectives and assistant prosecutors who worked so diligently over so many years to see that justice was done in this case.”
Jennifer Sweeney murdered Tyrita Julius
This horrific story all unfolded on November 24, 2015 when police were called to a home on Middlesex Street in Linden, N.J. on a report of a shooting.
Responding officers found Julius, who had been shot eight times, sitting in her vehicle, which had crashed into a utility pole not far from her home, reported ABC 7 NY.
The woman’s 15-year-old daughter was in the front passenger seat of the car, also having sustained a gunshot wound.
Julius and her daughter were hospitalized and recovered from their injuries.
The investigation into the shooting was still in progress when on March 9, 2016, Julius’ mother reported her daughter missing.
Authorities learned that the night before, Julius had been with Jennifer Sweeney, whom Julius had met through a motorcycle club.
While Julius was recovering from being shot, Sweeney visited her in the hospital.
Six months after Tyrita Julius was reported missing, her body was discovered buried in a shallow grave at a home on Joline Avenue in Long Branch, N.J.
Julius had been strangled with an electrical cord and wrapped in two garbage bags, according to authorities.
During the course of the investigation, detectives determined that Andre Harris, 37, of Long Branch was the gunman who shot Julius and her daughter in 2015 and that Sweeney set up the hit on her.
Arrests
Sweeney and Harris were arrested in August 2016 and charged in connection to Julius’ murder and failed murder attempt.
Harris later reached a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for a 16-year sentence in state prison and agreed to testify against Sweeney.
During Sweeney’s murder trial, Harris testified that the defendant was a “jealous lover” who suspected Julius of cheating on her.
Harris said Sweeney told him: “If I can’t have her, no one can.”
Harris accused Sweeney, whom he knew from high school, of threatening his life and the lives of his children if he did not kill Julius with the gun she had provided him.
Six months after the failed murder attempt, Harris said Sweeney drove to his house in Long Branch, N.J. with Julius dead in her Jeep Cherokee, and forced him at gunpoint to help her dispose of the woman’s body.
Jennifer Sweeney sentenced
Jennifer Sweeney must serve a minimum of 85 percent of both the 75-year life term for the murder and the 20-year term for the shooting, under the provisions of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act, meaning she will not become eligible for parole until she is more than 100 years of age.
Crime & Justice
Paramedic involved in Elijah McClain’s death sentenced to probation, work release and community service
Jeremy Cooper, a former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a fatal dose of ketamine, has been sentenced to probation and community service.
Jeremy Cooper, a former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a fatal dose of ketamine, has been sentenced to probation and community service.
Paramedic Jeremy Cooper sentenced
He had faced up to three years in prison but was sentenced to four years probation, 14 months of work release and 100 hours of community service.
Cooper and another paramedic, Peter Cichuniec, were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in December in the death of McClain, 23, who was subdued by police and injected with ketamine on August 24, 2019.
Both paramedics had pleaded not guilty to the felony charges. Cichuniec was sentenced in March to five years in prison, the minimum.
Police stop turns fatal
McClain was walking home in August 2019 when the 23-year-old Black man was confronted by police officers who forcibly restrained him. When Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec arrived, they injected him with ketamine.
He went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance a few minutes later and died three days after that.
The McClain family sued the city of Aurora for Elijah’s wrongful death and received a $15 million settlement.
Crime & Justice
Honor student killed by stray bullet while visiting Delaware State University
A shooting at Delaware State University has claimed the life of 18-year-old honor student Camay Mitchell De Silva.
Camay Mitchell De Silva, of Wilmington, Delaware, was shot and killed Sunday, on the Delaware State University campus.
The 18-year-old was visiting her best friend, a Delaware State student, when the tragic shooting occurred.
She was an honor student
De Silva was a 2023 graduate of Concord High School who graduated with a 3.0. She spent her first semester of college at Morgan State University in Baltimore but decided she wanted to come home to Delaware.
She then attended Delaware Technical Community College and planned to attend DSU in the fall to pursue a degree in Computer Science, with the goal of working in cybersecurity.
De Silva often hung out on campus with her best friend to get comfortable before attending DSU.
Delaware State shooting
The family said De Silva was visiting that friend at DSU on Saturday, April 20, and attended a party on campus that night. Around 1:40 a.m. on April 21, DSU Police received a report of shots fired on campus. The responding officers found De Silva in a residence hall suffering from a gunshot wound to her upper body. The officers administered aid and then took her to a nearby hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries.
Police say De Silva was not the intended target. Dover Police Department Chief Thomas Johnson Jr. told NBC10 there was a dispute that she was not involved in and she was hit by a stray bullet.
The suspects were seen fleeing the area and no arrests have been made, said authorities.
Dover Police released a statement from De Silva’s family requesting time to grieve and to plan for her celebration of life.
They also said they pray for and support the DSU community, law enforcement and the local community as they are “forced to manage this tragedy.”
Delaware State shooting investigation
Dover Police are still pursuing leads in the fatal shooting of Camay Mitchell De Silva.
Anyone with information is asked to contact detectives at 302-736-7130 or reach out to Delaware Crime Stoppers at 800-TIP-3333.
Crime & Justice
Exonerated man on a mission to rebuild his life
C.J. Rice, a man who served more than 12 years behind bars for an attempted murder he was falsely convicted of, was officially exonerated on March 18, 2024. He is now on a mission to rebuild his life.
Charles “CJ” Rice was just 17 years old when he was convicted of a crime he did not commit.
CJ Rice Exonerated
Now 30 year old Rice is using the injustice of the last 13 years to galvanize the life he almost spent behind bars after being exonerated and declared legally innocent of the crime he was convicted of in 2013 on March 18, 2024.
According to the GoFundMe, CJ wants to “embrace this opportunity” and become a paralegal.
With the help of Dream.org, the GoFundMe aims to help CJ start a new life with everything from a place to stay to clothes to wear as he builds a new future.
The CJ Rice case
CJ Rice, formally known Charles J. Rice, was convicted in a September 2011 shooting for attempted murder and sentenced to 30-60 years behind bars in 2013.
According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the South Philadelphia shooting left a woman identified as Latrice Johnson, a 6-year-old girl and two others injured.
Johnson called 911 after the shooting and described the suspects as two men running away in hoodies and black sweatpants but couldn’t fully identify them.
Through an initial investigation with victims in the hospital, Rice’s co-defendant, Tyler Linder, was identified as one of the shooters. Detectives interviewed Johnson while she was in the hospital and she identified 17-year-old Rice as one of the shooters running away although she hadn’t seen the teen in a few years. Rice had been friends with Johnson’s son when he was younger, according to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
In her description, Johnson said Rice was wearing a hoodie and claimed that she was able to see his full face and long braids poking out the side of the hood. However, Rice’s arrest photo depicted him with shorter cornrows flushed against his head. Despite this, a case against Rice and Linder was built.
According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, among the evidence was a theory that the shooting was retaliatory, which wasn’t proven. That’s because Rice was shot and injured a few days prior. It’s alleged the suspects ran from the scene, and Rice’s counsel never used his medical records as evidence to help Rice’s case.
Rice’s case received national attention after CNN anchor Jake Tapper began reporting on it. His father, Dr. Theodore Tapper, is Rice’s former doctor and treated his injuries.
Although it was alleged that the shooters ran from the 2011 crime scene, this is something that Dr. Tapper believed Rice just physically couldn’t do at the time.
Officials believed the 2011 shooting involved gang affiliations, leading the DA’s Gun Violence Task Force to begin their investigation to see whether or not Rice could be re-tried for the shooting or to dismiss the charges in full.
This suggestion of motive and the sole faulty eyewitness identification of CJ led to his conviction on four counts for attempted murder.
A free man
Rice’s defense counsel filed a habeas petition to get CJ out of prison and have his conviction overturned.
On March 18, 2024, the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas granted the Commonwealth’s motion to dismiss all charges against Rice, officially making CJ a free man.
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