Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone announced an Edison man was sentenced today for the murder of a 23-year-old New Brunswick man who he fatally shot in the City.
According to officials, Christopher Thompson, 29, of Edison, was sentenced to thirty years in prison for the murder of Larenz O’Garro.
County officials reported that Thompson was sentenced to an additional eight years in prison for the attempted murder of another man. Thomson was also sentenced for his unlawful possession of a handgun, and the hindering of his own apprehension for fleeing to Georgia after the murder.
Those sentences are to run concurrent to the murder and attempted murder. He was also convicted of possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose.
According to officials, Thompson was also separately sentenced to ten years in prison for being a certain person not to be in possession of a handgun due to a prior conviction with a five-year period of parole ineligibility. In total, Thompson will have to serve forty-one years and eight months of his forty-eight-year sentence before he is eligible for parole.
At trial, Executive First Assistant Prosecutor Bina Desai and Assistant Prosecutor Deanna Himelson presented evidence and testimony establishing that, on October 26, 2018, Thompson fatally shot O’Garro shortly after an altercation involving the second victim and codefendant Eric “E-Z” Inman who was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison.
According to the investigation, Thompson fled after the shooting, leading to an extensive search which included the coordinated efforts of the U.S. Marshals Service, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, and the New Brunswick Police Department.
On November 15, 2018, members of the U.S Marshals Service apprehended Thompson in Lithonia, Georgia.
Thompson and Inman were charged after an investigation by Detective Kenneth Abode of the New Brunswick Police Department and Sergeant David Abromaitis of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. Agent Jennifer Morelli and Victim Witness Counselor Marlene Valdez were also vital to the prosecution.
Photo from the Middle County Prosecutor's Office