The man accused of brutally beating an Atlantic City woman to death will stay in jail pending trial.
Mark Huff, 54, is charged with murder in the April 14 killing of Vernell Vance, who was found dead behind 21 S. Tennessee Ave.
Video footage from the area shows a man repeatedly striking Vance in the head with a concrete masonry block and stomping on her, Superior Court Judge John Rauh read in court.
Rauh said he read the information in court because “it very succinctly portrays the degree of violence associated with this crime along with the strength of the state’s proofs.”
Video from the NJ Transit bus station and a nearby business show Huff in the same clothes the attacker is wearing, Rauh said.
After his arrest, Huff identified himself as the man in still photos taken from those cameras, Rauh said.
Huff has a lengthy and violence criminal history, Chief Prosecutor Seth Levy told the judge.
Levy also said Huff was living on the streets. But defense attorney Sarah Weinstock said that, for the last three years, Huff had been living with his sister in Pleasantville.
His sister was among several family members who attended the proceeding.
Huff looked to them as he was escorted out of the courtroom after the judge ordered him held.
“Hey, look this way too, my man,” Vance’s son Kwami yelled over to Huff from a group of the victim’s loved ones seated on the other side of the courtroom. “Hey, Mark!”
Rauh told Kwami Vance he could talk to the defendant.
After the hearing, Vance said he didn’t know the man accused of killing his mother, who many called Kay Kay.
Her son previously said he believed Huff may have been someone she was trying to help because she always saw the good in everyone.
