What to Know
- A jury in New Jersey reached a verdict in the case of a Newark police officer facing manslaughter charges for shooting and killing a man fleeing a traffic stop in 2019.
- Jovanny Crespo was found guilty of aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault and official misconduct for the death of 46-year-old Gregory Griffin.
- The trial, which lasted for 10 weeks, came to an emotional conclusion after four days of jury deliberations. Crespo, who's been suspended without pay, facing up to 30 years in prison. His sentencing hearing will be in September.
A jury in New Jersey reached a verdict in the case of a Newark police officer facing manslaughter charges for shooting and killing a man fleeing a traffic stop in 2019.
Jovanny Crespo was found guilty of aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault and official misconduct for the death of 46-year-old Gregory Griffin.
The trial, which lasted for 10 weeks, came to an emotional conclusion after four days of jury deliberations. Crespo, who's been suspended without pay, facing up to 30 years in prison. His sentencing hearing will be in September.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox.> Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Prosecutors argued the police officer fired his service weapon three times during a pursuit of Griffin, who allegedly fled a traffic stop. The chase went for several miles throughout the city.
The two Newark men inside the car, 35-year-old Andrew Dixon and Griffin, were shot. Griffin died the next day.
A loaded semi-automatic handgun was found in the vehicle.
Local
Prosecutors said that Crespo was not the original officer to make the traffic stop in the area of Clinton Avenue and Thomas Street, but rather a female officer. However, when Griffin allegedly fled the stop, she radioed that he was fleeing and that she saw a gun, which lead to a pursuit involving numerous police cars, prosecutors say.
Crespo fired shots at the fleeing car at three separate locations, according to prosecutors. The vehicle then stopped in the area of Irvine Turner Boulevard, near Kinney Street.
"He showed a reckless disregard for human life by shooting into a moving vehicle — a vehicle which had heavily tinted windows," Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens has said.
No police officers were injured, prosecutors said, adding no other police officers discharged their weapons.
According to prosecutors, the incident was the first fatal police-involved shooting to result in an indictment in Essex County in recent memory.
Prosecutors released body camera and dash camera video, as well as dispatch audio related to the police chase and shooting.
In Crespo's body camera video footage, you can hear someone, presumably Crespo, telling the other officer in the police car at one point, "I think I shot him. I seen a gun. He pointed a gun at me" once he enters the car after firing at the vehicle involved in the pursuit.
Body camera video shows Crespo fired at the car on three different occasions — the last almost at point blank range.
Later on the body camera video, after the pursuit, Crespo tells other police officers that he shot both of the men.
