A Plainfield resident has been sentenced to 25 years in state prison for his role in the fatal shooting of a deli owner during the course of a robbery a little more than five years ago, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Monday.
Shalik Coleman, 23, must serve at least 85 percent of that sentence before the possibility of parole under New Jersey’s No Early Release Act, according to the terms set down by state Superior Court Judge Frederic McDaniel.
It was a little after 4 p.m. on July 2, 2011 when a man later identified as Coleman and two other suspects, all wearing masks, entered Eduardo Leaty's Deli on the 800 block of East Sixth Street in Plainfield, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Scott M. Peterson, who prosecuted the case.
An attempted robbery went awry, and Leaty was fatally shot, Peterson said.
An investigation by the Union County Homicide Task Force, Union County Sheriff’s Office, and Plainfield Police Division quickly resulted in Coleman being identified as a suspect in the case, and he was arrested two days later, lodged in Union County Jail on $1 million bail.
Coleman pleaded guilty in May 2016.
The other two suspects involved in the robbery remain at large, and anyone with information about their identities or whereabouts is being urged to contact the Homicide Task Force at 908-527-4500.