A 28-year-old man who gave a detailed statement about a robbery in his family's liquor store was later killed in the store.
Rick King is accused of robbing Amit Patel, 28, in his family's Irvington liquor store. Patel was later killed in the store. Although King was not charged with the murder, authorities contend Patel was killed to stop him from testifying on King's robbery trial. (Essex County Correctional Facility) NEWARK -- A statement by a robbery victim who was later murdered can be used as evidence against the accused robber, a Superior Court judge has ruled.
Judge Russel J. Passamno last week ruled that prosecutors can use the statement 28-year-old Amit Patel, of Edison, gave police after he was robbed in his father's liquor store in Irvington in October 2013.
Passamano said use of the statement is permitted as an exception to the rules prohibiting the use of hearsay evidence.
On Feb. 15, 2015, about a year and a half after Patel was robbed, he was shot at point-blank range as he worked alone in the front of the store. He later died.
Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Mira Ohm, who is prosecuting the man charged in the 2013 robbery, argued for the exception allowing Patel's testimony. Ohm said the robbery defendant, 32-year-old Rick King of Newark, had the most to benefit from the witness' death.
"In light of the probable likelihood Rick King caused Amit Patel to be unavailable (to testify), the state submits all of Amit Patel's statement should be admissible for trial purposes," Ohm said in her court papers.
King has not been charged with Patel's murder.
On Sept. 26, Passamano ruled that prosecutors could use Patel's statements to police and the recording of the 911 call of the robbery.
Evidence from the robbery pointed to King, prosecutors said.
After the robbery, Patel told police how much money was stolen, down to the denominations of the bills, and police later found that money on King, Ohm said. She said Patel described the clothing the robber was wearing. Police later found that clothing discarded and determined King's DNA was on it, she said.
Ohm said King, while he was free and awaiting trial, learned of Patel's statements to the police. She said after Patel was killed, police obtained video of a person entering and fleeing the liquor store at the time Patel was killed, and that King was seen wearing the same clothing shortly before the shooting.
Ohm also said that after Patel was killed, King told an Irvington police detective that he no longer had to worry about the robbery charge.
Some months after the shooting, King was arrested on related weapons charges. He has been held in the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark since July 2015.
No date has been set for a trial on the robbery charge.
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