Mack Edwards, Phobus Sullivan and Danuweli Keller are charged with killing Dardar Paye, 33, of Maplewood, a U.S. Army veteran from Liberia.
TRENTON -- Almost six years ago, a Liberian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran was kidnapped, killed and stuffed in the trunk of a car. Five suspects were later charged in connection with the crime
On Wednesday, attorneys completed jury selection for three of the suspects - Mack Edwards, Phobus Sullivan and Danuweli Keller.
Opening statements are expected to begin on Monday.
Dardar Paye fought for the U.S. military in the 1990s, serving tours in Iraq and Kosovo. He also served in the New Jersey National Guard. He was found dead in Trenton in 2011. The three men are charged with killing Dardar Paye, 33, of Maplewood. His body was found in the trunk of a car following a police chase in Trenton on Jan. 16, 2011.
The three suspects were also accused of kidnapping and robbing Alfonso Slaughter three months before Paye's slaying. The trio will be tried for both incidents as soon as jury selection is complete.
It's a long time coming for the case, which Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier called, "the oldest case in Mercer County," during a status conference in court earlier this year.
Paye received public attention in 2010 for his legal battle against deportation, which was chronicled in a Star-Ledger newspaper story.
A teenage refugee from war-torn Liberia, Paye ran afoul of immigration authorities after being convicted on weapons and drug charges. Despite his military service, he was to be deported under a 1996 federal law that expanded the crimes under which a non-citizen could be removed from the country.
Authorities have said Edwards, Sullivan and Keller are accused of first carjacking and kidnapping Slaughter on Oct. 31, 2010.
Mercer County prosecutors have said the three men took Slaughter to a basement of a house on Monmouth Street, where they tied him up and robbed him before Slaughter managed to escape.
Three months later the three suspects, along with a fourth man, Abdutawab Kiazolu, kidnapped Paye and held him in the same basement where they robbed him before shooting him to death, prosecutors allege.
After the pursuit, authorities said Sullivan was driving the car and Edwards was a passenger.
From top left, Phobus E. Sullivan, 27, Abdutawab Kiazolu, 22, Danuweli Keller, 23, and Mack W. Edwards, 25, all of Trenton have been charged in the slaying. Police also stopped a van, which they believed was connected to the car. Keller was driving the van with Kiazolu as a passenger, prosecutors have said.
All four men were indicted on counts of murder, felony murder and weapons charges for the slaying.
A fifth man, William Daquan Brown, was indicted on felony murder charges in connection with the incident. Prosecutors have said Brown was present for the robbery and kidnapping of Paye, but not the killing itself.
Kiazolu and Brown, who were only accused of playing a role in Paye's kidnapping and not Slaughter's, have since been severed from the court proceedings.
Their cases are being handled separately from the trial of Edwards, Sullivan and Keller.
Brown is already in prison serving a 50-year term for the September 2008 slaying of Tracy Lamont Crews in Trenton.
And Sullivan is already serving a 20-year prison term for the December 2010 slaying of Andrew Leonard, also in Trenton.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman.