Jamal B. Darby, 24, said he showed a gun to his co-defendant who then shot and killed Marshan Washington
A Trenton police SUV sits at a crime scene in this April photo. A similar truck was shot at last night, police said.
TRENTON — A city man charged with murder in the 2008 death of Marshan Washington pleaded guilty today to helping in the fatal shooting.
Jamal B. Darby, 24, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated manslaughter, telling Judge Robert Billmeier that on Feb. 24, 2008, he showed a gun to his co-defendant Wallace L. McClain, who then shot and killed Washington. Prosecutor Skylar Weissman had argued previously that it was Darby who shot Washington.
In Superior Court, Darby said that he and Washington had fought the previous day, and they met again when he returned to a house on the 200 block of West Hanover Street in the early morning hours of Feb. 24.
When he went inside he found that McClain there, acting strange and violent, he said.
He gave some crack cocaine to McClain, who became even more violent after using the drug. Darby showed McClain where a handgun was hidden in a couch, and McClain used the gun to shoot and kill Washington, he said.
City sanitation workers later found Washington’s body wrapped in a blue tarp, with one arm sticking out, at a bend in the road where Riverside Drive becomes Clearfield Avenue.
Darby pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence, Weissman said. He will have to serve 85 percent, or about 8 1/2 years, before he is eligible for parole.
If Darby had not accepted the plea deal the case was set to proceed to trial in March. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 3.
McClain pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in 2010 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.