by Jonathan Schuppe, Ralph R. Ortega, Jeffery C. Mays and Alexi Friedman
Sunday August 19, 2007, 4:45 PM
Authorities today said they arrested the sixth and final suspect in the execution-style murder of three college students and wounding of a fourth in Newark.
The suspect, 18-year-old Melvin Jovell, was taken into custody at 3:45 a.m. in a relative's home in Elizabeth in Union County, authorities said. Detectives from Newark Police department's homicide squad and investigators from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office made the arrest, according to Newark police. He was taken without incident.
Jovell was charged with three counts of murder, four counts of robbery, one count of attempted murder, two weapons offenses and conspiracy to commit robbery, said Charlotte Smith, executive assistant Essex County prosecutor. Those are the same charges as his co-defendants, Newark police said.
While Jovell lives in Elizabeth, police said, he appears to have deep roots in Newark. Sharlatte Saunders, 17, said she used to see him hanging around with several of the other suspects already seized in the killings.
He attended Mount Vernon School -- where the shootings took place in the schoolyard -- and Vailsburg Middle School, she said, and grew up a couple of blocks from the scene of the killings.
Jovell does not appear to have any criminal arrests as an adult, police said. Although all of the suspects have been apprehended, police are still calling it "an active investigation," and say they are withholding "several details" related to the case to ensure its integrity.
Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin ordered Jovell held on $2 million bond at the Essex County Jail, law enforcement authorities said. In a statement, Mayor Cory Booker said, "Now the process of healing must take center stage and the prosecution of the case begins."
The apprehension comes just a day after police arrested 24-year-old Rodolfo Godinez and his half brother, Alexander Alfaro, 16, outside Washington, D.C. In fact, police arrested Jovell after having gathered leads from those arrests in Virginia and Maryland, authorities said.
Investigators have called Godinez a "principal player" in the Aug. 4 slayings, along with Jose Lachira Carranza, 28, who turned himself in Aug. 9. Police have said they believe Carranza fired one or more of the fatal bullets. Investigators say Godinez, a Nicaraguan immigrant, had been hiding inside a low-rise apartment complex in Oxon Hill, Md., for about a week until his arrest early Saturday morning. Alfaro was arrested in Woodbridge, Va.
All six are charged in the schoolyard slayings of Newark residents Dashon Harvey, 20, Terrance Aeriel, 18, and Iofemi Hightower, 20. Terrance Aeriel's sister, Natasha, 19, was shot in the head but survived.