{"id":13754,"date":"2018-11-14T14:03:43","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T19:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=13754"},"modified":"2018-11-14T14:03:43","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T19:03:43","slug":"brick-man-indicted-in-thanksgiving-eve-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/11\/brick-man-indicted-in-thanksgiving-eve-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Man Indicted in Thanksgiving Eve Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Handcuffs<\/a>

Handcuffs (Shorebeat File Photo\/ banspy\/ Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

A Brick Township man is one of three people to be indicted in the 2017 murder of a Barnegat man who was shot the night before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

Vernon Sanders,<\/span><\/span> 34, of Brick,<\/span><\/span> Steven<\/span><\/span> J.<\/span><\/span> Taylor, 36, and Avery Hopes, 23<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>both<\/span><\/span> of Asbury Park<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>are named in the indictment charging each of them <\/span><\/span>with <\/span><\/span>first degree<\/span><\/span>\u00a0conspiracy to commit murder, first degree m<\/span><\/span>urder<\/span><\/span> and<\/span><\/span> second degree p<\/span><\/span>ossession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose<\/span><\/span>. Additionally, Sanders and Hopes are charged with second degree<\/span><\/span>\u00a0unlawful possession of a weapon.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Sanders<\/span><\/span> and Taylor are also<\/span><\/span>\u00a0charged with <\/span><\/span>second degree c<\/span><\/span>ertain persons not to possess weapons.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Monmouth County Prosecutor\u2019s Office,\u00a0the charges stem from a shooting that occurred on November 22, 2017, in the area of 150 Prospect Avenue in Asbury Park.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Asbury Park police went to the address after hearing the sound of gunshots<\/span><\/span> at approximately 10:32 p.m., a statement said. Officers quickly arrived and located the victim, Denzel Morgan-Hicks, 27, of Barnegat, in the driver\u2019s side front seat of a 2017 Ford Expedition, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. \u00a0Asbury Park Fire Department E<\/span><\/span>mergency <\/span><\/span>M<\/span><\/span>edical <\/span><\/span>S<\/span><\/span>ervices<\/span><\/span> and MONOC paramedics also responded, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A joint investigation by d<\/span><\/span>etectives from the <\/span><\/span>Monmouth County Prosecutor\u2019s Office<\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>Asbury Park Police Department <\/span><\/span>identif<\/span><\/span>ied<\/span><\/span> Sanders, Taylor and Hopes<\/span><\/span> as the<\/span><\/span> individuals responsible for Morgan-Hicks\u2019 death. The motive for the alleged crime was not divulged.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The trio face life imprisonment without parole if convicted of first degree murder. The conspiracy charge carries a 20 year sentence.<\/p>\n

Photos of the suspects were not released.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Brick Township man is one of three people to be indicted in the 2017 murder of a Barnegat man who was shot the night before Thanksgiving. Vernon Sanders, 34, of Brick, Steven J. Taylor, 36, and Avery Hopes, 23, both of Asbury Park, are named in the indictment charging each of them with first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[2124,24,232,3523],"class_list":["post-13754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-police-fire-courts","tag-asbury-park","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-murder","tag-vernon-sanders"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-25-at-11.57.15-PM.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3zQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}