Crime & Safety

North Brunswick Man Admits To Shooting Rival Gang Member In New Brunswick

A 20-year-old North Brunswick man Monday admitted fatally shooting a rival gang member in New Brunswick, Middlesex County Acting Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey announced.

Eduardo H. Escobar-Landaverde pleaded guilty in New Brunswick to reckless manslaughter and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, saying he fatally shot Oswaldo Lozada, 21, also of North Brunswick, on a street in New Brunswick on January 9, 2012.

Escobar-Landaverde also said he carried the gun for the purpose of shooting gang rivals.

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Escobar-Landaverde pleaded guilty during a hearing before Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone, who said he will sentence the defendant on July 11, 2014.

The defendant pleaded guilty under an agreement reached with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Manuel Sameiro and Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Vincent Vitale. 

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Under the agreement, Escobar-Landaverde will be sentenced to a prison term of six years and will be required to complete 85 percent of the term before he can be eligible for parole.

Escobar-Landaverde was charged after an investigation by Detective Ronoldy Martinez of the New Brunswick Police Department and Investigator Jeffrey Temple of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office determined that the defendant, a member of the 18th Street Gang, shot Lozada, a member of another street gang known as MS-13.

The homicide investigation began after police received multiple 911 calls reporting that shots had been fired in the vicinity of Louis and Somerset streets in New Brunswick.

They arrived to find Lozada, who was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead.


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