The first of three co-defendants to be sentenced in connection with the 2012 killing of a teenager in Roselle has been ordered to spend 35 years in state prison, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Friday.
Nyfee Mallory, 23, must serve a minimum of 30 years of that term before the possibility of parole under the terms set down Friday morning by state Superior Court Judge Stuart Peim.
Police were called to the Sylvester Land football field in Roselle shortly before 11 a.m. on February 20, 2012 on reports of a person having been shot, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Sheets, who prosecuted the case. Damel Mitchell, 17, of Roselle was pronounced dead at the scene approximately 15 minutes later, Sheets said.
A joint investigation by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Task Force and Roselle Police Department, assisted by the Union County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Unit and Union County Police Department Ballistics Unit, led to the arrests of Mallory, 23-year-old Derrick Dunn, and 22-year-old Corey Winston two days after the shooting.
The investigation revealed that the three defendants lured the victim to the football field that night with the intent to rob him. As Mitchell attempted to flee, Sheets said, he was shot and killed.
In March 2017, following a trial lasting three weeks and jury deliberations spread over two days, Mallory was found guilty of charges including robbery and felony murder. Dunn pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated manslaughter the next month, and Winston did the same two months later.
Winston is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Peim on Friday, September 15, 2017, while Dunn is scheduled for sentencing two weeks later.