On the evening of June 8, 2015, 21-year-old Nigel Morton was at his home on Westfield Avenue in Rahway, New Jersey, when he answered a knock at his front door shortly after 10 p.m. Upon opening the door, he was met with gunfire and was shot once in the chest. Emergency services were called, and Morton was rushed to University Hospital in Newark for medical treatment.
Despite the efforts of medical personnel, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead the following morning.
An intensive investigation into the fatal shooting was launched by the Union County Homicide Task Force, the Rahway Police Department, and the Union County Sheriff’s Office Identification Unit. This joint effort led to the identification of three men as suspects in connection with Morton's death. The suspects were named as 22-year-old Quincy Oliver of Rahway, 22-year-old Tyrell Dekle of Woodbridge, and 23-year-old James C. Sears of East Orange. Authorities confirmed that Sears was a member of the Piru set of the Bloods street gang.
The investigation led to the arrests of the three suspects over a period of several months. Quincy Oliver was the first to be apprehended and charged in July 2015. Tyrell Dekle and James C. Sears were subsequently charged in October of the same year. In February 2016, a Union County grand jury returned indictments against all three men. They were each charged with first-degree murder, first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, and two second-degree weapons offenses for their alleged roles in the shooting death of Nigel Morton. If convicted on the murder charges, the men faced a potential sentence of 30 years to life in state prison.
