A Union County grand jury has returned a murder indictment against a Union Township resident charged with being responsible for the fatal beating of a Maplewood man that took place this past summer, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Wednesday.
Yves Marcellus, 25, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of 25-year-old Matthew Murrell.
Police responded to a home on the 800 block of Salem Road in Union Township shortly before 5 a.m. on July 5th to find the body of Murrell in the yard. He was pronounced dead a short while later.
An intensive joint investigation involving the Union County Homicide Task Force, the Union Township Police Department, and the Union County Sheriff’s Office resulted in Marcellus being identified as a suspect in the case, and he was arrested without incident at his place of employment on Route 22 in Union several days after Murrell’s death.
Marcellus was lodged in Union County Jail, with bail set at $1 million by state Superior Court Judge Scott J. Moynihan.
Convictions on murder charges are commonly punishable by 30 years to life in state prison.