NEWARK, NJ– A former New Jersey police officer has been sentenced to a total of 27 years in prison for fatally shooting one man and wounding another during a high-speed chase 5 1/2 years ago in the city of Newark.
Supreme Court Justice Michael Ravin, citing the need to deter officers from what he called a “shoot first, ask later” mentality, sentenced former Newark officer Jovanny Crespo on Friday to 20 years for aggravated manslaughter and seven years for serious assault. during the January 2019 chase, NJ.com reported.
These sentences run consecutively; the judge imposed official misconduct terms of six years, which will run concurrently with the other sentences. NJ.com reported that Crespo, 31, slumped back in his chair and members of his family cried when the judge told him he would not be eligible for parole for 22 years and 11 months.
Earlier, Crespo cried as his mother and sister begged for leniency. He later stood up to briefly apologize to the victims’ families.
The dashboard and police camera of the chase showed Crespo jumping out of his patrol car and firing three times during the chase. Essex County prosecutors said state guidelines only allow deadly force if the officer or someone else is in “imminent danger” of death or serious bodily harm.
Attorney Isaac Wright Jr. had asked for leniency, telling the judge that Crespo had been in office for less than two years and was poorly trained, and that superiors should have called off the January 2019 pursuit. Prosecutors said he trained for more than six months at the police academy and was schooled in the proper use of deadly force.
Ravin agreed, calling the defendant “extensively trained” and saying the five-minute chase through Newark, which ended in the death of 46-year-old driver Gregory Griffin and left his passenger seriously injured, was “an abhorrent abuse of police power ‘ used to be.