Neco Pitts (N.J. Department of Corrections)
A Monmouth County man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the fatal shooting inside an Egg Harbor Township home.
Arturo "Arty" Barrera III, 24, died after what the admitted shooter described as a robbery gone wrong Jan. 2, 2020.
Arturo 'Arty' Barrera III"This victim impact letter seems useless since the true victim is dead," Marlene Barrera said Thursday, as she addressed the court at the sentencing. "My son is gone. He’s not coming back."
The Barreras waited 14 months for the arrests of Neco Pitts and Leonard Ludwigsen to come.
Still, they did not have many answers.
Then, Pitts made a deal with the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office, not only to admit to his part in the plan to steal drugs and sell them, but to finally name the second gunman inside the Vermont Avenue home that night.
"I fired at his legs," Pitts told Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury during his plea in August.
Ludwigsen admitted to being the getaway driver. His statement to detectives was thrown out after defense attorney Lou Barbone successfully argued that a detective filed to "scrupulously honor" his right to remain silent.
He is now set to go to trial in January.
Even with the now-suppressed admission, Ludwigsen was outside the home at the time of the shooting. It did not solve the report that two masked men had shot Barrera.
"Also included in that conspiracy to rob the house, was there a second shooter?" Chief Assistant Prosecutor Seth Levy asked Pitts at his plea.
"Yes," Pitts replied.
The judge clarified that is was someone other than Ludwigsen.
That name still has not been made public. But if a second shooter does plead guilty, Pitts could apply to have three years removed from his sentence.
"It seems you were gifted a plea bargain of a shortened prison sentence just because you decided to tell the truth three years later," Marlene Barrera said in court Thursday. "While you didn’t talk, I didn’t sleep. I didn’t eat. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t function in life.
"My health deteriorated because of it," the still-grieving mother continued. "I walked into stores and public places looking at any person who would fit your build, and wondering if he killed my son. I lost all faith in society.
"I knew you were living free on the streets while you watched my family on the news and in social media begging for information. You watched without remorse and continued your life as if nothing happened, as if Arty wasn’t real and this would all one day go away," she added.
Barrera said her son died in his best friend's arms in the home where the friend could not return due to the tragedy.
"There’s never a happy birthday ever again. There’s never a Merry Christmas," she said. "There never will be. There’s always going to be a missing piece. A pang in my stomach. A hole in my heart. You tore my family apart and I pray you get the justice you deserve one day, even if this sentence today in court allows you to walk free one day."
Pitts must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence — or 12 years nine months — before he is eligible for parole under the No Early Release Act.
He faces 15 years in prison under the plea agreement with 85 percent of parole ineligibility under the No Early Release Act. But he could get even less time if he identifies that second shooter and testifies at trial, or the second shooter pleads guilty.
Pitts received one year of credit for time served in the Atlantic County Justice Facility.
He then was moved to New Jersey State Prison, where he is serving an unrelated four-year sentence that includes charges of aggravated assault, child endangerment and terroristic threats out of Monmouth County.
"I pray Arty’s face is the last image in your mind when you go to bed and the first when you wake," Marlene Barrera told Pitts. "Because he is real and, because of you, he is dead."
