A Mays Landing man is set to go on trial in a 2012 killing more than a month after he was indicted on new charges in the old case.
Joshua Cross, now 31, is one of four men charged with murder in the killing of 25-year-old Sedrick Lindo in Atlantic City. He is the first to go on trial.
Lindo was on a porch in Carver Hall with others when he was gunned down. A young child was injured in the attack.
Jury selection was supposed to begin last month, but on the eve of trial Cross was indicted on several additional charges in the case, felony murder and two counts of fourth-degree aggravated assault for allegedly pointing a gun at the child and his mother.
At the time, officials said an infant was possibly struck by a ricochet from a bullet.
In court earlier this month for motions in the case, however, it was clarified that that child injured was 3 years old. Although there was also an infant on the porch.
Cross’ defense attorney Timothy Reilly argued there was medical evidence indicating the injury may have been caused when the toddler's mother tried to get him off the porch when the gunfire began.
Assistant Prosecutor Allison Eiselen disagreed that the round bruise to the boy’s chest could have been caused by falling onto an object on the carpeted concrete porch.
The two fourth-degree aggravated assault charges were dropped anyway, after Superior Court Judge Patricia Wild ruled too much time had passed. Cross is still charged with third-degree aggravated assault for causing bodily injury to the child.
Time was the same reason given for dropping robbery and attempted robbery charges that were not in the original 2012 indictment.
An added charge of felony murder — a death that happens during the commission of another crime — did stay, even though the original crime named was robbery.
The alleged shooter in the case has previously been portrayed as Mujahid Blackwell, who was just 16 at the time of the killing.
Cross also faces a charge of using a juvenile to commit a criminal offense.
Blackwell was indicted on the aggravated assault charges in the original grand jury presentation. His cousin, 26-year-old Khalil Blackwell of Mays Landing, is also awaiting trial in the case.
By the time the older Blackwell was charged in the killing he was already in prison on weapons charges. He was released from state prison last Nov. 30, and remains jailed on bail.
The fourth person charged is Demarice Bennett, now 31, of Pleasantville.
