Alleged gang member takes surprise guilty plea in Asbury Park gang execution trial
FREEHOLD - On the same day his retrial on charges stemming from a 2017 gang execution was supposed to start, an Asbury Park man took a surprise plea deal instead.
Avery Hopes, 28, an alleged member of the Bloods street gang, pleaded guilty Monday to attempted murder in the Nov. 22, 2017, murder of Denzel Morgan-Hicks, a member of the rival Crips gang.
Opening arguments had been expected Monday in Hopes’ retrial on the murder charges. But even though Hopes was in the courtroom, the jury was never seated. It became clear that something was in the works when the judge closed the courtroom and asked spectators to leave more than once. The doors reopened with news of the plea.
Monmouth Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley accepted Hopes’ plea after Hopes admitted to possessing a handgun and using it on the night of Nov. 22, 2017, running up to the passenger side door of a vehicle and aiming to kill the occupant.
In explaining the plea for the attempted murder, Hopes' attorney, Paul Zager, said none of the bullets ever struck the target.
Hopes’ original trial on the charges, along with co-defendant Vernon Sanders, lasted six weeks and ended in a mistrial. The pair were expected to stand trial together again, but Superior Court Judge Marc C. LeMieux assignment judge in Monmouth County, agreed with a prosecutor’s request to sever the case and try each defendant separately.
Morgan-Hicks, a former Asbury Park resident who was living in Barnegat, died in a hail of gunfire while returning to his sport-utility vehicle after visiting friends in an apartment on Prospect Avenue on Thanksgiving Eve 2017.
Prosecutors alleged that Sanders wanted Morgan-Hicks dead and enlisted Hopes to participate in the murder because he thought Morgan-Hicks killed 21-year-old Neptune resident Edric Gordon, a member of the Bloods, in Asbury Park in 2011. Morgan-Hicks, however, was never charged in Gordon’s death.
Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley declared a mistrial on March 23 in the original trial after one of the jurors told the judge she has attention deficit disorder and was having trouble concentrating, and that she felt bullied by the other jurors.
The bullying was denied by many of the other jurors when they contacted the Asbury Park Press after the mistrial to give their side of the story.
LeMieux, in deciding a motion by prosecutors to have the two defendants tried separately, said that the alleged bullying was never established because O'Malley never questioned the other jurors about it. But he cited the one juror's difficulty concentrating, and said the complexity of the case was the reason he was severing it.
The attempted murder charge can carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in New Jersey state prison and a maximum $200,000 fine, according to Oxley.
At the time of sentencing - scheduled for October 20 - the state will recommend a sentence of 14 years, with 85% of the sentence having to be served before the opportunity for parole.
Zager will recommend 12 years in state prison, with the same parole stipulations.
Hopes' sentencing will move forward once Sanders' case is also resolved, according to Oxley.
Jenna Calderón covers breaking news and cold cases in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Before coming to the Press, she covered The Queen City for Cincinnati Magazine in Ohio. Contact her at 330-590-3903; jcalderon@gannettnj.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Surprise guilty plea in Asbury Park gang execution trial
