Randolph NJ murder: Teen to be resentenced in 2005 death of girl – Daily Record

The state’s highest court has ordered a new sentence for James Zarate, who is serving 50 years in prison for helping his older brother kill and dismember a 16-year-old Randolph girl, finding that a judge misapplied a factor related to his youth.

Zarate’s case was one of two at the forefront of what appears to be a landmark decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court, finding that juvenile offenders serving lengthy prison terms may ask for a review of their sentence after serving 20 years behind bars. The decision, wrapped in an 86-page opinion headed by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, will likely be lauded by juvenile justice reformers who have argued that children do not deserve to spend life in prison.

Zarate was 14 when he and his 18-year-old brother, Jonathan, killed Jennifer Parks in their father’s Randolph home and cut off her legs before putting her dismembered corpse in a trunk. The pair and another teen were caught by police on July 31, 2005, trying to dump the trunk into the Passaic River. 

Zarate was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to life in prison, with 85% of the term, or roughly 64 years, without the possibility for parole. Zarate’s case weaved through the appeals court several times, and in November 2017, he was resentenced to 50 years in prison, cutting his parole eligibility down to 43 years and six months. 

As of Monday, Zarate was facing a parole eligibility date of Jan. 28, 2048, according to New Jersey Department of Corrections records.

When Zarate heads back to state Superior Court in Morris County, it will be at the judge’s discretion to determine a proper sentence under state statute, Rabner wrote. In New Jersey, a defendant can face a minimum 30 years in state prison if convicted on a first-degree crime of murder. 

In ordering a new sentence, the courts “must weigh a juvenile’s immaturity and other ‘hallmark features’ of youth in setting punishment, as they failed to do adequately for Zarate,” Rabner wrote for the majority.

He said that at Zarate’s resentencing, the judge misapplied one of those “hallmark features” that reflects the fact that teenagers, even intelligent ones, are not yet as mature or as fully developed in their way of thinking as adults. The sentencing judge “mistakenly substituted ‘intelligence’ for ‘maturity,’ ” Rabner added.

Rabner, backed by Justices Jaynee LaVecchia, Barry T. Albin and Fabiana Pierre-Louis, said juveniles can petition for a hearing after they have served two decades in prison. Judges will then consider whether the defendant has matured or been rehabilitated; appreciates risks and consequences; and has behaved well in prison. Other factors that couldn’t be considered until decades later would also be considered. The judge can either confirm or reduce a defendant’s original sentence.

“A juvenile who played a central role in a heinous homicide and then had a history of problematic behavior in prison, and was found to be incorrigible at the time of the later hearing, would be an unlikely candidate for relief,” Rabner noted. But a juvenile who acted on peer pressure and did not carry out a significant role in the homicide, who presented proof of rehabilitation, could be a prime candidate for a lesser sentence or reduced parole ineligibility time, he added.

The court declined to consider Zarate’s argument he was peer-pressured by his brother. 

Three Supreme Court judges disagreed with Rabner’s opinion, believing the decision to readdress juvenile’s sentences after 20 years should be made by legislators, not the courts.

“We acknowledge our colleagues’ view that the New Jersey Constitution permits our intervention here. But we are not legislators imbued by our Constitution with such authority. In our view, the majority today act ‘as legislators’ instead of as judges,” Justice Lee Solomon wrote in dissent, joined by Justices Anne M. Patterson and Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina.

The ruling also stems from the case of James Comer, who was 17 when he was sentenced to 75 years in prison for his involvement in four armed robberies in 2000, one in which his accomplice shot and killed a victim. Comer’s case will also be remanded for resentencing in Essex County.

Jonathan Zarate told police that he invited Parks over to watch television with him around 3 a.m. on July 30, 2005, then attacked her after she allegedly spoke negatively of his younger brother. Prosecutors claimed James Zarate was an accomplice from the start because he had a grudge against Parks after she got him in trouble at school when she claimed he had bullied her.

James Zarate, also known as “King Samurai,” has run into trouble while jailed at the New Jersey State Prison, formerly Trenton State Prison. In April, he was charged with planning an assault on an inmate as part of a larger “hit squad” led by a Latin Kings member. It is alleged the “squad” brutally assaulted an inmate, causing permanent brain injury, and further planned assaults on law enforcement, the state Attorney General’s Office said in a release.

Zarate’s new resentencing date in Morris has not yet been set.

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.