Dominique Vivett, a 25-year-old Black/African American man, was fatally shot on the afternoon of April 3, 2018, outside the Arborwood Apartment Complex on East Gibbsboro Road in Lindenwold, New Jersey. Police responded after receiving 911 calls about the shooting at approximately 4:06 p.m. and found Vivett on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound.
Emergency medical personnel rushed him to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, but his injuries proved fatal and he was pronounced dead at approximately 5:26 p.m.
The investigation quickly developed into a homicide case involving several people who had been present when the shooting occurred. According to later court records, four witnesses gave statements to investigators, and one of them subsequently identified Terrill A. Chandler as the person who shot Vivett. Court records also revealed that while Vivett was being transported to the trauma center, a handgun fell from his pocket. Investigators additionally recovered numerous bags containing suspected controlled dangerous substances and United States currency from his person. Those circumstances would later become relevant when Chandler and the court discussed the possibility of a self-defense claim.
Authorities charged Chandler with first-degree murder on April 6, 2018. For a period afterward, investigators were unable to locate him. By April 20, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, Lindenwold Police Department and United States Marshals Service were publicly seeking him and warning that he should be considered armed and dangerous. Investigators believed Chandler might be traveling with his girlfriend, Victoria Harris, who was independently wanted on an outstanding Camden County Superior Court warrant. Authorities believed the pair might have been in the Trenton area and appealed to the public for information about their whereabouts.
That search ended later on April 20, when tips from members of the public helped authorities locate Chandler and Harris in Philadelphia. Members of the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force arrested them in the area of Broad and Erie streets. They were held in a Philadelphia correctional facility while awaiting extradition to Camden County. Contemporary reports connected Harris to Chandler's flight and noted her separate outstanding warrant, but did not report that she had been charged with participating in Vivett's killing.
A Camden County grand jury subsequently indicted Chandler on first-degree murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, and a charge of being a certain person prohibited from possessing a weapon. The prosecution's case included the witness identification linking Chandler to the shooting. The case ultimately did not proceed to a murder trial.
On April 15, 2019, after the murder count was amended as part of a plea agreement, Chandler pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter. During the plea proceeding, Chandler admitted that he shot Vivett and acknowledged that his actions were reckless under circumstances demonstrating an extreme indifference to human life. He did not assert self-defense when entering the plea. Under the agreement, the remaining charges arising from the homicide indictment were later dismissed at the prosecution's request.
At Chandler's sentencing on June 7, 2019, the fact that Vivett had been armed was specifically discussed. The court questioned Chandler about self-defense, and Chandler acknowledged that he had discussed such a defense with his attorney and understood that a successful self-defense claim could potentially result in an acquittal. Despite that possibility, he confirmed that he had chosen to plead guilty. The court sentenced Chandler to 16 years in state prison. Under New Jersey's No Early Release Act, he was required to serve 85 percent of that sentence before becoming eligible for parole, followed by five years of parole supervision.
Chandler later attempted to challenge the outcome. He filed a motion in October 2021 seeking to correct what he alleged was an illegal sentence, but that motion was denied in April 2022. In March 2024, he filed a petition for post-conviction relief claiming his plea attorney had inadequately investigated the case. Among his allegations was that his attorney failed to interview witnesses who, Chandler claimed, might have strengthened a self-defense argument, and that counsel had failed to investigate Vivett's background.
The post-conviction court rejected those claims in February 2025, finding that Chandler had not produced supporting evidence showing the witnesses would actually have established self-defense or that additional investigation would have produced a more favorable plea agreement. The court also relied on Chandler's own statements at sentencing acknowledging that self-defense had been discussed with his attorney before he voluntarily chose the plea. Chandler appealed, but on June 30, 2026, the New Jersey Superior Court's Appellate Division affirmed the denial of post-conviction relief. As a result, his aggravated-manslaughter conviction and 16-year sentence for the fatal shooting of Dominique Vivett remained in place.
