Man Pleads Guilty to 2020 Bergen-Lafayette Homicide
A Jersey City man pleaded guilty yesterday to charges arising from a 2020 shooting death in Bergen-Lafayette.
According to Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez, Kenyowa Pinkney, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of Aggravated Manslaughter in connection with the 2020 shooting death of Javone Smith, 23, also of Jersey City.
Smith was gunned down on April 6, 2020, just before 6:30 p.m. near Martin Luther King Drive and Myrtle Avenue. When members of the Jersey City Police Department responded to a report of shots fired they found Smith with multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body.
Smith was taken to Jersey City Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at approximately a short time later.
On April 14, 2020, members of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit arrested Pinkney in connection with Smith’s death.
Kenyowa Pinkney. Photo courtesy of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office.
The State will be recommending a sentence of 25 years in New Jersey State Prison subject to the No Early Release Act and Graves Act.
Sentencing is scheduled before Judge Vincent J. Militello on June 17, 2022.
The State is represented in this case by Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Adam Salzer.
