Keyshawn Jones, a 23-year-old Black man, was inside his Newark, New Jersey, apartment in the early hours of Sunday, December 15, 2019, when his life was violently taken. He was shot multiple times at his home in the Stephen Crane Village, a public housing complex on Franklin Avenue. Police who responded to the scene found Jones, and he was pronounced dead shortly after.
The investigation quickly identified a suspect, Michael Mayse, another Newark resident.
A day after the shooting, on the evening of December 16, homicide detectives, SWAT, and Newark Emergency Services Units located Mayse at a home on North 12th Street. After a two-hour standoff, he was arrested without further incident. A search of his residence uncovered two handguns, cocaine, and heroin.
Authorities with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office initially charged Mayse with murder and weapons offenses in the death of Keyshawn Jones. He was also charged in a separate homicide, the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Shakur Cole, which had occurred a month earlier in the nearby city of Orange. The investigation soon expanded, revealing that the killings were connected to a violent drug trafficking organization operating out of the Stephen Crane Village. Federal prosecutors alleged that Mayse killed Jones, a co-conspirator in the operation, over a drug debt.
The case was prosecuted in federal court, where Mayse was identified as a leader of the Stephen Crane drug gang. The organization was responsible for distributing heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine base in and around the housing complex. Following a trial, a federal jury convicted Michael Mayse of murder, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and related firearms offenses for his role in the killing of Keyshawn Jones. Another man, Gary Shahid, was convicted on drug and firearms charges for his role as a supplier for the gang. As of the verdict in March 2025, the case is considered solved.
