Bayonne Man Pleads Guilty in Another Brinkerhoff Street Homicide

Authorities have announced that justice was meted out yesterday in connection with another death on Brinkerhoff Street in Bergen-Lafayette.

Today, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez announced that Bernard Wilson, 29, of Bayonne, pleaded guilty yesterday for his role in the 2020 shooting death of Abimael Fuentes, 38, of Jersey City, on Brinkerhoff Street.

Yesterday, Suarez announced that, following a seven week trial that ended yesterday, a Hudson County jury convicted two Jersey City men in the 2018 killing of a 17-year-old Jade Saunders. Saunders was gunned down near 76 Brinkerhoff Street.

The area surrounding Brinkerhoff Street has been beset by violence in recent years. On May 21 of last year, two people were killed and four injured in a shooting at the intersection of Crescent Avenue and Brinkerhoff Street.  A man was gunned down two blocks away on Belmont Avenue in January.

The Wilson case dates back to Tuesday, April 21, 2020, when, just after 10:30 p.m., members of the Jersey City Police Department responded to shots fired on Brinkerhoff Street between Monticello Avenue and Bergen Avenue. There, responding officers found Fuentes with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Fuentes was taken to Jersey City Medical Center where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. The Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Fuentes died from the gunshot wound and ruled the death a homicide.

Wilson pleaded guilty to one count of Aggravated Manslaughter. The State will be recommending a sentence of 20 years in New Jersey State Prison subject to the No Early Release Act. Sentencing is scheduled before Judge Vincent J. Militello on October 14, 2022.

The State is represented in this case by Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Baginski.