Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Mount Holly Police Chief Thomas Mastrangelo announced today that two criminal street gang members have been sentenced to New Jersey state prison terms for robbing a Mount Holly man at gunpoint two years ago.
The sentencings were the result of plea agreements reached with Kavon Carter, 19, of Lumberton, and Tayron Brown, 20, of Edgewater Park for an armed robbery on Hulme Street on May 7, 2015.
Carter and Brown previously admitted in Superior Court that they approached the victim as he walked home from his job at a gas station and at gunpoint demanded the keys to the business’s safe. When the victim responded that he was unable to access the safe, Carter and Brown walked him to his house and attempted to gain access, but were chased off by the victim’s relatives. They were arrested a short time later, and the firearm was recovered.
The Hon. Charles A. Delehey, J.S.C. yesterday sentenced Carter to eight years in state prison on charges of Unlawful Possession of a Weapon (Second Degree) and Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance with Intent to Distribute (Third Degree), and Brown to seven years incarceration for Robbery (First Degree) and Unlawful Possession of a Weapon (Second Degree).
Another defendant in the case, Tifani Young Jr., 22, of Pemberton Township, is scheduled for trial on May 17. Young is charged with three counts of Witness Tampering (First Degree), Robbery (First Degree) and Conspiracy to Commit Robbery (Second Degree).
Young is alleged to have been waiting nearby as the getaway driver if the robbery had been successful. Young is later alleged to have threatened the victim of the robbery for giving a statement to law enforcement.
Carter, Brown and Young are members of a street gang they call the Gotti Boy Movement (GBM), which is associated with the Bloods.
Another GBM member was sentenced today by Judge Delehey for leading police on a car chase following a shooting in October 2015 in Sunbury Village in Pemberton Township.
Adam Clark, 23, of Pemberton Township, received a five year term in state prison in exchange for pleading guilty to Eluding (Second Degree) after engaging in a lengthy police pursuit during which two firearms were thrown from the vehicle. Tifani Young also faces charges in that case. A 17-year-old male who was also a defendant in that case was fatally shot in February 2016 at a Cherry Hill motel.
The cases were investigated by detectives from the Prosecutor’s Office, the Mount Holly Police Department and the Pemberton Township Police Department, with assistance from the New Jersey State Police. The lead investigator for the BCPO was Det. Tim Van Fossen.