Wallace Parrish, 19, of West Fourth Street was arrested last weekend in connection with the Sept. 28 death of 44-year-old Johnston Avenue resident Isidro Leonardo, an employee of United Taxi on Watchung Avenue. Parrish made his first appearance before Superior Court Judge Joan Robinson Gross on Wednesday, when he did not comment at length about the case that authorities have described as a robbery gone wrong.
It was not immediately known Thursday whether Parrish had secured legal representation, but details about his life during the months leading up to Leonardo's death seemed to reveal a troubled background that included a 2009 arrest in Ewing.
Mercer County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Casey DeBlasio said Tuesday that Parrish in June entered a three-year pretrial intervention program that was to include requirements of periodic supervision and 50 hours of community service. Pretrial intervention, or PTI, is a program through which defendants, mostly first-time offenders, are offered rehabilitative alternatives to traditional prosecution. Assuming certain conditions are met, successful completion of the state's PTI program results in charges faced by a defendant being dismissed.
DeBlasio said Wallace had no criminal record prior to August 2009, when he was charged with robbery, endangering an injured person and solicitation or recruitment to join a street gang in connection with an incident involving five other teenagers.
The Union County Prosecutor's Office, in announcing Parrish's arrest last weekend, identified him as a confirmed member of the Sex Money Murder gang set, which is active in the Trenton metro area and in Plainfield. Plainfield Police Sgt. Larry Brown, the division's veteran gang specialist, said Parrish was known to local authorities prior to Leonardo's death, but only dating back a short while.
It was not immediately known Thursday whether Parrish had secured legal representation, but details about his life during the months leading up to Leonardo's death seemed to reveal a troubled background that included a 2009 arrest in Ewing.
Mercer County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Casey DeBlasio said Tuesday that Parrish in June entered a three-year pretrial intervention program that was to include requirements of periodic supervision and 50 hours of community service. Pretrial intervention, or PTI, is a program through which defendants, mostly first-time offenders, are offered rehabilitative alternatives to traditional prosecution. Assuming certain conditions are met, successful completion of the state's PTI program results in charges faced by a defendant being dismissed.
DeBlasio said Wallace had no criminal record prior to August 2009, when he was charged with robbery, endangering an injured person and solicitation or recruitment to join a street gang in connection with an incident involving five other teenagers.
The Union County Prosecutor's Office, in announcing Parrish's arrest last weekend, identified him as a confirmed member of the Sex Money Murder gang set, which is active in the Trenton metro area and in Plainfield. Plainfield Police Sgt. Larry Brown, the division's veteran gang specialist, said Parrish was known to local authorities prior to Leonardo's death, but only dating back a short while.
