A Union County jury has returned guilty verdicts against a Middlesex County man who fatally shot a Plainfield resident following an argument in 2011, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Tuesday.
Malcolm Bradley, 25, of Edison was convicted of murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and criminal restraint in connection with the death of 31-year-old Curtis Stroud. The jury returned its verdicts on Monday after deliberating over parts of three days following a three-week trial before state Superior Court Judge Stuart Peim.
The date was March 16, 2011 when Bradley and Stroud engaged in a verbal dispute at a restaurant on the corner of Park Avenue and East Fifth Street in Plainfield, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Colleen Ruppert, who prosecuted the case.
A short while later, Bradley followed Stroud to the area of BerckmanStreet and South Avenue in Plainfield, where he shot Stroud as he was seated in the back seat of a friend’s car, Ruppert said. Stroud’s friends transported him to the emergency room at Muhlenberg Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short while later.
An intensive joint investigation by the Union County Homicide Task Force and the Plainfield Police Division quickly resulted in Bradley being identified as a suspect in the case, and he was arrested in Edison and charged approximately two weeks later.
Sentencing in the case has been scheduled for February 5, 2016, at which time Bradley could receive a term of up to life in state prison.