The 47-year-old Ewing man just got his bonus check. His girlfriend was going to cook a celebratory dinner. Watch video
EWING -- Linda Armstrong stood in her driveway, in the rain at night, yelling for her boyfriend Leroy Julious to come help her with the groceries.
She later realized, "I was walking in his blood the whole time."
It was around 10 p.m. on May 9, 2008. Armstrong had just returned from the ShopRite grocery store that was less than a mile from her Hazel Avenue home.
Julious, a cook at The College of New Jersey, had recently received a bonus check for cashing in his unused sick and vacation days. Armstrong was going to cook a celebratory seafood dinner.
Armstrong's friends, a man and a woman, had given her a ride to the store. After dropping her off, they left.
While bringing in the groceries, she saw Julious' jacket inside. She knew he hadn't gone far.
He was in a gravel lot across the street, beaten to death. He was 47.
The killing of Julious remains unsolved, but detectives with the Mercer County Homicide Task Force believe it's a case that can be cracked with a good tip or a witness coming forward.
The 'Cook'
Julious lived in another Ewing neighborhood about three miles from Armstrong's, but he was almost always at her house. Armstrong's nearly bedridden uncle, Cletus, who is now deceased, lived at the house as well, she said.
After she got home the night Julious died, Cletus told her that Julious had gone out to investigate banging noises near his truck in the driveway about a half hour prior.
Armstrong's phone soon rang. Her female friend who had just left had forgotten her cigarettes and was coming back to pick them up, she said.
When the friend returned, she noticed something in the gravel lot and alerted Armstrong.
It was Julious.
Julious was often called "Cook," short for Cookie.
"When he was young he always tried to get he get cookies," Della Julious, Cook's mother, said.
"Ever since he started walking he was 'Cookie,'" his aunt, Rashonda Arrington said.
He and Armstrong had been together for 13 years and had a 13-year-old son together.
Just a day before his death, Armstrong says he had discussed the idea of them getting married.
People close to Julious describe him as a man who kept to himself, loved children and could light up a room with his energy.
"He always joked and played around," Della Julious said. "I miss that."
"Neighborhood kids missed him," she said. He played basketball with the kids and when the ice cream truck rolled through the neighborhood, he would treat all the kids to ice cream.
They say he's not the type of person to cross someone or have enemies. There is only one motive friends, family and investigators could think of for his murder - money.
The Investigation
Task force Detective Pat Holt, the lead investigator who was one of the first on the scene, thinks somebody killed Cook for his bonus check that totaled between $750 and $1,000.
Not many people knew Julious received his bonus check -- only his family and closest friends.
Even fewer knew if he had even had time to cash the check before his death. He didn't have a bank account so police are unable to know for sure.
Armstrong thinks he cashed it. He had just bought some new clothes and other things for their son.
Julious was streetwise. He never carried large sums of money on him unless we was planning on spending it. If anyone was looking to profit from his death they were likely disappointed by the little bit of cash he had on him, says Armstrong.
Julious had been punched, kicked and stomped to death.
Holt said Julious had shoe marks on his chest that were ranged from size 9 to 12 -- the wearer had stomped on his chest more than once and so severely that they had collapsed his chest cavity.
Standing 5 feet 10 inches and weighing about 180 pounds, Julious was light enough for one person to drag.
Armstrong said he looked small laying in the gravel lot.
He had no defensive wounds -- indicating that he may have been comfortable around his attacker or that he had been surprised.
Holt says the beating was savage. It looked as though he was beaten to death by someone using only their own hands and feet, but because of the severity of the beating investigators believe a weapon could have been used.
5 killings that could be cracked with a tip
The Friends
Armstrong says that in retrospect her female friend and the other person who took her to buy groceries -- a man who goes by the street name "Black" -- had been acting suspicious since returning from the grocery store.
They were in a hurry to leave her house after returning with the groceries. They didn't even offer to help her unload the groceries from her female friend's van, she said.
Around the time the police and first responders arrived, the male friend took off in the van, says Armstrong. He said he had warrants and didn't want to be involved with police.
The female friend stayed behind with Armstrong.
Armstrong says her friend had a deer in the headlights expression glued to her face when authorities arrived.
Murder is so commonly committed by a loved one, that partners are very often the first suspect. While grieving her loss, Armstrong had to deliver about two weeks worth of statements and lie detector tests to investigators.
She was soon cleared as a suspect, Holt and Armstrong said.
The female friend was also cleared as a suspect, but Holt says that during her initial interview with police she made some statements that led investigators to believe she had key information about Cook's murder.
Armstrong says the more she thinks about it, the man she knew as "Black" and her other friend displayed odd behavior the night of Julious' killing.
One at the grocery store, the two friends initially dropped Armstrong off to grocery shop alone. They said they were going to wait in the parking lot.
But 45 minutes later, Armstrong says her female friend came in the store to buy detergent and then the two walked out together.
Then the man - their ride - was not in the parking lot and the women had to wait about 15 minutes for him to return, says Armstrong.
Suspect Emerges
Police caught up with the man known as "Black" shortly after he left the crime scene.
Holt says the man quickly became a prime suspect. Investigators suspect he was involved, or could have arranged it.
Armstrong says she believes he knew Julious had received his bonus because Julious paid back a few dollars he had owed the man.
Holt, a Ewing detective, remains the case detective eight years later. He says despite being relatively straightforward from the beginning, the case soon grew cold.
Armstrong's female friend ceased being cooperative after the first police interview, Holt said.
Months after the crime, Armstrong says her female friend came to her and broke down in tears confessing that she knew something about Cook's death.
"She can't tell me what happened cause she's scared for her life," Armstrong said.
Holt believes she was intimidated by someone who knew something. He thinks that someone may have been the man known as "Black."
Holt says the man remains the only suspect and that investigators need someone with key information to come forward if the case is to be solved.
The suspect, though, is rumored to have left the Trenton area, everyone involved says.
Remembering 'Cook'
"Everybody talks about him all the time," Della Julious said. "They wish he was here."
His mother said the killer or killers became cowards after the fact.
"I wanted to have to have a happy life -- everything is shattered," Armstrong said. "I know it won't bring him back, but I would like whoever did it to... pay for it."
Armstrong no longer lives at the house on Hazel Avenue.
The female friend would not return calls for interview requests.
Anyone with information on any unsolved homicide may call Holt at 609-989-6029 or the Crime Stoppers tipline at 609-278-8477.
This is an article is part of an occasional series on unsolved killings in Mercer County.
Greg Wright may be reached at gwright@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregTheWright. Find NJ.com on Facebook.