Alton Jones was aiming for one person but fatally shot two bystanders in two separate shootings three years ago.
TRENTON - Rayshawn Ransom's sister remembers the dried blood on her brother's head as he lay close to death in a Trenton hospital bed three years ago.
She remembers the look on the faces of her family members and she remembers reaching out and holding her 19-year-old brother's hand as he died.
Alton Jones Ransom's sister spoke from a podium in court on Friday, at the sentencing of the shooter, Alton Jones, 24. During her talk, Ransom's sister remembered her brother's death three years ago and relayed a singular message to Superior Court Judge Thomas Brown.
"There's no punishment... that will ever be enough," she said.
Jones, who appeared in court with a bevy of supporters, was sentenced to 38 years in prison Friday for two fatal shootings in the summer of 2013. The sentence was in accordance with a plea deal Jones agreed to in July.
On Friday Jones leaned back in his chair and listened as family members of his two victims - Ransom and 19-year-old Tierra Green - spoke about the shootings that changed their families' lives.
The first occurred in June 2013 when Jones fired at a group of people, including Ransom, at a Passaic Street neighborhood. He aiming for one unnamed person in particular, Mercer County prosecutors said Friday. Ransom was shot and died in a car on the way to the hospital.
But Ransom's death didn't keep Jones from opening fire again, three days later, at a crowd standing on West State Street. Again, prosecutors said he was aiming for the same unnamed person as before but instead hit Green, who died at a hospital a short time later.
After the second killing, Jones fled the state and was found by U.S. Marshals NY/NJ over two weeks later at a home in Connecticut. He barricaded himself inside but eventually gave up when the SWAT team arrived at the scene.
Murder victim was father of slain teen
During the sentencing Friday, Green's aunt, Tiffany Hollingshead, said she's watched as the grief of losing the 19-year-old promising teen splintered out into the rest of the family in the ensuing years. Green's mother, Tia Green, died of a heart attack the next year. Her father, Elliot Simon Jr., was shot and killed in an unrelated incident this spring.
"This is all we have left because of what Alton Jones has caused," Hollingshead said, choking back tears and holding up a framed picture of Tia and Tierra Green, turning to face Jones. "There's only three of us now."
Despite the losses, Hollingshead said she doesn't hold animosity toward the 24-year-old. She addressed him Friday, saying that her family has long known Jones' family.
"Alton, as much as I want to hate you, god wont let me," she told him, adding that she planned to pray for him when he goes to prison.
But for Tia Green, the feelings of animosity never went away. Before she died, Tia Green wrote a Facebook post, remembering her daughter and admonishing Jones for the shooting. A family member read the late mother's post in court Friday.
"You killed my daughter in cold blood," Tia Green's statement said, adding Tierra Green would have "control over" Jones in death.
"You're always looking over your shoulder... your cowardly action will not go unpunished," Green's statement said.
Jones didn't speak at his hearing and his supporters, who filled the right side of the courtroom did not speak on his behalf. But some supporters, who openly snickered and smiled as Green's family members spoke, caught the attention of a court officer, who admonished them and threatened to bar them from the proceedings.
Jones will need to spend 85-percent, or a little over 32 years in prison before he is eligible for parole, the judge ordered.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman