Shaheed Brown, accused of shooting Enrico Smalley to death, is facing his second trial for murder
TRENTON - For all of the surveillance footage recovered and the shell casings found, investigators did not end up with a piece of evidence that saw 20-year-old Enrico Smalley in the exact moment of his death.
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Shaheed Brown was arrested in Newark and charged with the July 12, 2014 slaying of a Ewing man in Trenton. "There is no smoking gun in this case," Assistant Prosecutor Brian McCauley said Thursday.
But there is an accused killer and a body of evidence that catches the moments just before and after the 20-year-old was gunned down on a crowded street in front of a bar two years ago.
That evidence was laid out for a jury Thursday in the first day of a murder trial for Shaheed Brown, who's accused of shooting Smalley in July of 2014.
Smalley was found with multiple gunshot wounds lying in front of LaGuira Bar on the intersection of North Clinton Avenue and Poplar Street on July 12, 2014. He died a short time later at the hospital.
A month of investigation police arrested Brown in August in Newark. Though his case went to trial in the fall it ended in a hung jury in October and had to be retried this week.
Jury selection starts in second murder trial
During the beginning of the second trial Thursday, McCauley and defense attorney Edward Heyburn both discussed the evidence surrounding Smalley's murder, which exists primarily in video surveillance of the streets around the bar.
Though they drew very different stories from the evidence, the one thing McCauley and Heyburn could both agree on was the lack of surveillance footage - the virtual blackout - for Smalley's murder.
During his opening statements Thursday, McCauley outlined the footage leading up to the murder, which he said shows Smalley walking with Brown down a street, toward the bar. They walk out of camera just moments before Smalley is shot, McCauley told the jury.
He added that the street was packed that night - and that witnesses would later discuss both hearing shots and seeing people put on gloves - but that no one identified the shooter.
"No one actually sees the face of the shooter," McCauley said.
Shortly after the killing, Brown packed up and headed out of Trenton. He went up to Newark and cut dreadlocks that he had been sporting before police caught up with him, McCauley said.
For Heyburn, it's not enough.
"There's a lot of evidence but there's not evidence that solves this for us," Heyburn told the jury.
He claimed that surveillance video shows two other men walking in front of Brown and Smalley just before the shooting. Heyburn went on to say that one of the men walking in front backed away just before the shooting occurred.
Heyburn went on to say that it looked on the tape like the man anticipated the shots.
In his opening arguments, Heyburn hit a couple of obstacles as Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson criticized him for making defensive, closing-like arguments rather than opening statements.
Heyburn apologized to the jury and finished his statement saying, "This case is going to be extremely visual."
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.