Teens were not armed in EHT gun case, lawyers claim

Two of three men were in the wrong place at the wrong time when Egg Harbor Township police arrested them inside a vehicle with a stolen gun, their attorneys said during separate detention hearings Tuesday.

Shuaib Wright, 19, and Mikel Jones, 18, both were released from jail with agreement from the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

Both remain charged along with co-defendant Aziz Coley-Wilson, whose detention hearing was postponed after the state refused to consent to his release.

It is expected that Coley-Wilson, 20, of Atlantic City, ultimately will face the charges alone for terroristic threats and possession of a handgun that was reported stolen from Ohio.

Police were called to King Pin Lanes on the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township on March 11, after a man allegedly retrieved a handgun from his vehicle following a verbal altercation inside the bowling alley.

He allegedly threatened to shoot people.

The suspect already was in a vehicle getting ready to leave when police arrived, and conducted high-risk stop in the back parking lot.

The gun and a large-capacity magazine were retrieved and all three arrested.

But during was detention hearings Tuesday, attorneys for Wright and Jones noted that their clients have no criminal histories at all, and included several character letters.

    Shuaib Wright, left, and Mikel Jones both were released. Jones was in black-and-white stripes as a high-security inmate due to his young age.
  

Wright lives with his mother in Egg Harbor Township and has a full-time job, his attorney, Justin Capek, told the judge.

Jones is a senior at Atlantic City High School with several scholarship offers, defense attorney Durann Neil told the judge.

"This is a college-bound kid with over 40 character letters," Neil told BreakingAC. "I'm glad the Prosecutor's Office got it right."

Meanwhile, public defender John Bjorklund had Coley-Wilson's hearing postponed to Friday, asking for surveillance video and witness statements that allegedly identify him as the gunman.

Coley-Wilson also may try to hire a private attorney, Bjorklund said.