NJ Man Gets 190 Years For 3 Brutal Murders In Newark – Newark, NJ Patch
ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — An Essex County man who “brutally” murdered three Newark residents over the course of two days was sentenced to 190 years in state prison, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Jeffrey Holland, 30, of East Orange, murdered Tiniquah Rouse, 21, Ashley Jones, 23, and Jarrell Marshall, 28, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
The victims, all residents of Newark, were killed over the course of two days in January 2016, prosecutors said.
Holland was sentenced to 60 years for each murder, and another 10 years for being a convicted felon with a weapon. Under the No Early Release Act and the Graves Act, Holland must serve 158 years before he is eligible for parole, prosecutors said.
“[Holland] brutally killed three innocent people, and in the case of Rouse, desecrated her body,” Assistant Prosecutor Justin Edwab said. “His crimes are even more cruel because they were carried out in the presence of very young children, including two of his own children.”
Ronald Wigler, presiding criminal division judge in Essex County, said the murders were the “most depraved, heinous and cruel” that he’s seen in his entire tenure on the bench.
According to prosecutors:
“On Jan. 29, 2016 Holland strangled and drowned Rouse with whom he had a romantic relationship. He then put her 5-month-old baby boy in the apartment closet, covered him with clothes, and left the apartment. Rouse was found in her apartment bathroom deceased and desecrated. The baby was discovered unharmed.”
The second and third murders took place the next day, authorities said.
According to prosecutors:
“Holland went to Jones’ apartment where he kicked in the apartment door and fatally shot Jones and Marshall just a short distance away from three children ages one, three, and four. Jones and Holland previously dated but had broken up. They were the parents of two of those children who were present during the murder of Jones and Marshall. One was a year old and the other was 4-years-old. The third child, a three-year-old, was Marshall’s daughter from another relationship. Jones and Marshall had recently started dating.”
In December 2018, an Essex County jury found Holland guilty of three counts of murder, desecration of human remains, hindering, felony murder, burglary, theft, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, multiple counts of endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
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