A Plainfield man has been sentenced to 45 years in state prison for his role in a 2009 murder, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Friday.
Philip Patrick, 32, must serve at least 85 percent of that sentence before the possibility of parole, according to the terms set by state Superior Court Judge Stuart Peim. Following a trial lasting approximately one month, a Union County jury deliberated for a full day in February before finding Patrick guilty of murder and two weapons offenses in connection with the death of 27-year-old Dwayne Dunn of Plainfield.
The date was September 27, 2009 when Plainfield police officers rushed to the Richmond Beer Garden at the corner of East Third and Richmond streets to find Dunn suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutors Bruce Holmes and Michelle Ghali, who prosecuted the case. Dunn subsequently was rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead.
An intensive joint investigation involving the Union County Homicide Task Force and the Plainfield Police Division resulted in Patrick being identified as a suspect in the case, and he was arrested approximately one month later. The fatal shooting ultimately was determined to have been gang-related, Holmes said.
A sibling of Dunn’s was in court Friday and read a statement into the record. Calling Dunn’s murder “a cold-blooded execution of a friend,” Peim also referenced Patrick’s lengthy criminal history in explaining the length of the sentence.