Angel Hernandez is serving a life sentence for the 2004 execution-style slaying of Jeri Lyn Dotson.
TRENTON -- A Latin Kings gang member convicted of shooting a 23-year-old woman to death over a decade ago in Trenton will get an evidentiary appeal hearing, an appeals court ordered in a decision Tuesday.
Angel Hernandez, who's serving a life sentence for the 2004 execution-style slaying of Jeri Lyn Dotson, filed for post-conviction relief (PCR) in 2013 - but was denied an evidentiary hearing in the matter.
Angel Hernandez In the PCR petition, Hernandez, now 30, blamed his attorneys for ineffective counsel, saying they argued two separate defenses.
In one defense, his lawyers said at Hernandez had an alibi for the time of the murder and in another, they claimed he committed the slaying under duress.
The appellate court decided Tuesday to give Hernandez an evidentiary hearing in order to go over the two defenses presented by his attorneys.
"We are not able to ascertain, without an evidentiary hearing, whether the presentation of these seemingly inconsistent defenses was the result of a dereliction by trial counsel or a strategic decision," the decision said.
The appellate division previously upheld Hernandez's case in a direct appeal, in 2011.
Jose 'Boom Bat' Negrete gets life in prison
Hernandez's new hearing comes nine years after Hernandez's trial and conviction in 2007.
Prosecutors said Hernandez killed Dotson under the direction of Latin Kings leader Jose "Boom Bat" Negrete.
Negrete believed that Dotson had witnessed Latin Kings members abducting Alex "Al-Key" Ruiz and wanted to cover up the crime, prosecutors have said. Negrete had also become suspicious that Dotson may have been giving information to a rival gang or police, prosecutors have said.
Negrete was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for Dotson's murder and the attempted murder of Ruiz.
Negrete was convicted in April 2015 following his third trial. The first ended in a hung jury and the he was convicted at a second trial, but that verdict was overturned on appeal.
Hernandez is currently serving his sentence at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton and is currently eligible for parole in 2085.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman