Freehold highway shooter gets life in 'random, evil' killing of young mother
FREEHOLD - Sciasia Calhoun’s only sin was driving with her high beams on because her headlights weren’t working properly, a judge said Monday at the sentencing hearing for her killer.
The 24-year-old mother from Freehold Borough happened to be driving behind Kader Mustafa on westbound Route 33 in Freehold Township on May 3, 2018.
Mustafa “was marauding on the streets with a weapon in the driver’s area, armed and dangerous, driving around aimlessly, essentially a ticking time bomb,’’ Superior Court Judge Vincent N. Falcetano said.
After pulling over to let Calhoun pass him, Mustafa tailgated her, even bumping her car at a high speed, the judge said. Then, he took a revolver, placed his hand out of the window and fired, the judge noted.
The bullet struck Calhoun in the head, but not before coming within feet of Calhoun’s 18-month-old daughter and boyfriend, who were riding in the car with her. Calhoun died a half hour later at CentraState Medical Center in Freehold Township.
“This was completely random,’’ Falcetano said. “It’s senseless, random, unnecessary and evil.’’
The sentence
Falcetano sentenced Mustafa, 40, of Hightstown, to life in prison for Calhoun’s murder. He sentenced the defendant to an additional 10 years in prison for a weapons offense, to be served after the life sentence. A life sentence equates to 75 years under New Jersey sentencing guidelines.
Mustafa will be ineligible for release on parole before serving 63 3/4 years in prison on the murder charge. He must serve another five years without parole on the weapons charge, under the sentence imposed by Falcetano.
Calhoun’s relatives asked the judge to impose the maximum life term, as did Christopher Decker, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor.
Defense: Sentence not appropriate
But defense attorney Jack Venturi argued a life sentence was not appropriate, and he asked instead that the judge impose the minimum term for murder of 30 years in prison without the possibility of release on parole.
Mustafa was suffering from paranoid delusions and believed he was being followed and “being bombarded with radiation and beams and all kinds of things,’’ Venturi said.
In fact, when he was arrested, Mustafa’s head and body was covered with tin foil to protect him from radiation, the defense attorney said.
“He had a significant mental deterioration,’’ Venturi told the judge. “That deterioration is not a permanent one. He doesn’t suffer from these paranoid delusions anymore.’’
But Falcetano cautioned people “not to confuse bizarre behavior with depravity.’’
The judge noted that Calhoun was driving with her daughter and boyfriend to Asbury Park when she realized there was a problem with her headlights, so she turned around to drive home when she encountered Mustafa.
She “had the great misfortune to be driving down the highway behind the defendant,’’ and her high beams triggered something in him, the judge said.
As Mustafa was tailgating Calhoun, she turned off the highway, he said. After being shot, she “had the ability, don’t ask me how, to pull the car over on the ramp of the road and stop,’’ Falcetano said.
When police arrived on the scene of the shooting, Calhoun’s boyfriend was holding their infant and screaming, covered with the victim’s blood and brain matter, Falcetano said.
“I can’t imagine how one recovers from that,’’ the judge said. “I don’t know how you recover from the loss of a child and a grandchild.’’
The judge earlier had heard from the victim’s mother, sister, grandmother and godmother, who each asked him to impose the maximum term on Mustafa.
“He killed my baby for no reason,’’ said Valerie Calhoun, the victim’s mother.
Valerie Calhoun played a recording of Sciasia’s daughter wailing inconsolably.
“She cry, she cry, she was 18 months,’’ Valerie Calhoun said.
Dayshia Calhoun, the victim’s sister, called Mustafa a “cowardly wimp,’’ and asked the judge not to give him the opportunity to stalk and attack another victim.
'A diamond in the rough'
Sayonna Doster, the victim’s godmother, called the victim “a diamond in the rough’’ who wanted to accomplish many things in her life.
“Then, suddenly she’s gone, right in the middle of achieving great things, because someone heinously felt very comfortable going out in the middle of the night, shooting a gun into a car with a bullet that whizzed past her baby’s head and hit hers,’’ Doster said.
“She took a big chunk of all of us with her,’’ Doster said. “We don’t have the opportunity to gain that back.’’
Evelyn Calhoun described her granddaughter as sweet and kind.
“She had big aspirations and dreams, but that was all taken away from her,’’ Evelyn Calhoun told the judge.
Decker said the most disturbing thing about the case was that it was “a classic road rage incident,’’ adding you never know who you’re dealing with in a situation like that.
“Sciasia never even did anything,’’ Decker said, adding that she pulled off the roadway to try to avoid a confrontation.
“The defendant chose to randomly fire a shot and randomly kill a 24-year-old woman who did absolutely nothing,’’ Decker said. “There’s nothing more depraved.’’
He noted a jury in October deliberated for only an hour and 10 minutes before finding Mustafa guilty of all charges following a trial before Falcetano.
In addition to murder and weapons charges, Mustafa also was found guilty of endangering the welfare of Calhoun’s baby and boyfriend, for which the judge imposed concurrent prison terms.
Mustafa declined to speak before he was sentenced.
The case was tried by John Loughrey, an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor who has since retired. Loughrey returned to the courtroom Monday to watch the sentencing.
The judge, in imparting the sentence, commended the Manalapan police who, on the night of the shooting, spotted a car matching the description of the assailant’s and took down its license plate.
That led to Mustafa’s arrest in the vehicle the following day.
Calhoun’s killing came amid a spate of highway shootings in Monmouth County in April and May 2018, including one in which 54-year-old Neptune resident Earl “Everlasting’’ Sanders was fatally shot on April 28, 2018, while driving on Route 18 in Colts Neck. His killing remains unsolved.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Freehold NJ murder: Highway shooter gets life in random killing of mom
