Franklin teen may be retried as an adult in killing of Samaad Frazier
A state Appellate Court has ordered a new hearing on whether a Franklin teen should be tried as an adult in the murder of a 19-year-old man on New Year's Eve in 2019.
A Superior Court judge in the Family Division ruled that the teen, identified by his initials, I.S., because of his age at the time of the killing, could not be tried as an adult in the death of Samaad Frazier on the afternoon of Dec. 31, 2019.
Frazier was sitting in a car with his girlfriend off Churchill Avenue in Franklin when he was shot to death.
Township police quickly responded to a report of shots fired and saw a black Nissan Altima, with several people inside, speeding away from the scene. Officers pursued the Nissan in a high-speed chase and after speeding down several streets, the Nissan crashed and five people wearing dark clothes and ski masks fled the scene.
Police quickly apprehended I.S., Jeffrey Grant and Gavin Owens-Jones.
Two others, Luther Waters and another juvenile, T.H., were arrested later.
I.S. was 16 at the time of the murder.
T.H. was also 16, but he consented to being charged as an adult. He pled guilty to aggravated manslaughter and agreed to provide truthful testimony against the other four, including I.S.
Both Owns-Jones and T.H. told police that all five occupants in the Nissan had handguns and were looking for people they believed had been involved in a shooting on the previous day.
While driving, they saw Frazier in another car and followed him because they believed he was involved in the previous shooting. When that car parked, I.S., Owens-Jones, T.H and Grant got out of the Nissan and filed multiple shots at Frazier, court papers say.
A forensic ballistics expert told police that a .40-caliber projectile recovered from Frazier's torso matched a gun seized from Owens-Jones.
In April 2020, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Officer filed a motion in the Family Division of Superior Court to try I.S. as an adult.
More than a year later, on June 24, 2022, the Family Court judge, citing testimony from psychologists retained by the defense, ruled that the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office had not explained why it failed "to weigh and acknowledge the trauma in I.S.'s life" as a mitigating factor.
One of the psychologists diagnosed I.S. with "Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder" and both diagnosed him with depression and "Cannabis Use Disorder."
But a psychiatrist retained by the Prosecutor's Office diagnosed I.S. with "Impulse Control and Conduct Disorder" and said he did not suffer from any condition that would prevent him from being tried as an adult.
The Family Court judge took issue with the Prosecutor's Office argument that I.S. "had no history of significant trauma" and did not adequately explain why it disagreed with the defense's psychologists.
The Appellate Court overruled the Family Court judge's ruling, writing that the Prosecutor's Office's statement of reasons why I.S. should be charged as an adult was "thorough and complete."
"We are convinced that the Family judge simply substituted her judgment for the judgment of the prosecutor," the Appellate Court wrote in its opinion, adding the judge's decision was an abuse of discretion.
The Appellate Court sent the case back to the Family Division for a new hearing before a new judge.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Franklin NJ teen may be retried as adult in Samaad Frazier killing
