August 17, 2022
This is a follow up to a story we brought you earlier in the week: Trenton, NJ Man Charged With Criminal Homicide And Other Related Charges In January 2020 Killing In Bristol, PA
TRENTON, NJ (MERCER)—BRISTOL, PA—According to a 34-page Presentment from the Twentieth Bucks County Investigating Grand Jury that was unsealed by a judge earlier this week three Trenton area men have been charged in relation to the criminal homicide of Joshua J. Mcrae of Trenton, NJ on January 19, 2020.
In the Findings of Fact in the Presentment, on Sunday, January 19, 2020, at 1:45 a.m., Pennsylvania State Police Troopers responded to the area of I-295, mile marker 0.2, in Bristol Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania for the report of a body on the highway.
Upon arrival, responding troopers located the body on the east berm of the highway lying face down with his arms stretched over his head. The male was identified at Joshua Mcrae and pronounced deceased by responding emergency medical services prior to troopers arrival.
Pennsylvania State Police personnel secured the scene and observed what appeared to a bullet entry wound on Joshua Mcrae’s left side near his rib cage, Mcrae’s body was transported to the Bucks County Coroner’s Officer, where Dr. Ian Hood performed an autopsy in the presence of Trooper Michael Gesualdo and Trooper Christopher Cleveland. Dr. Hood ruled Mcrae was shot five times and found four entry wounds on Mcrae’s left side and one in the center of his chest, which went through his heart. Dr. Hood ruled the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death to be homicide.
Pennsylvania State Police personnel interviewed witnesses and provided information placing Mcrae at Murphy’s Beef and Ale, located at 7525 Bristol Emilie Road in Levittown on January 18, 2020. Surveillance video from January 18, 2020 shows Mcrae arriving to the bar at 11:46 p.m. in a 2018 Toyota Highlander. The vehicle belonged to Mcrae’s girlfriend and Mcrae was seen using the vehicle earlier in the evening. The video shows Mcrae entering the bar though the back entrance at 11:50 p.m. accompanied by four other individuals identified as Bias Taquir Robinson, Taurien Jamar Corbin, Jerry Earl Robinson and Robert Shannon Christie.
While at Murphy’s on the evening of January 18 and into January 19, 2020, the video shows Mcrae speaking individually with Bias Robinson and Robert Christie outside of the bar. The video also shows Bias Robinson and Jerry Robinson meeting with an individual identified as Edward Seibert prior to leaving. Mcrae remains depicted on video at Murphy’s until 12:27 a.m. Surveillance video shows Bias Robinson and Jerry Robinson leaving Murphy’s parking lot in Bias Robinson’s vehicle. At approximately 12:30 a.m., Mcrae, Corbin, and Christie enter the front passenger seat, and Mcrae enters the rear passenger seat before video shows the vehicle leave Murphy’s
About 12:55 a.m., less than one hour prior to the discovery of Mcrae’s body on I-295, the Toyota Highlander with all three individuals returned to Murphy’s before leaving again. State Police recovered additional surveillance from various locations in New Jersey. The videos show the Toyota Hgihlander traveling to, and entering, Cunningham Alley across from 418 South Cook Avenue, Trenton, NJ at approximately 2:24 a.m. approximately 40 minutes after Mcrae’s body was found.
The video, which shows the Toyota Highlander on fire, also shows three individuals leave the alley on foot and walk up Cook Avenue. The Trenton Fire Department found the Highlander burned to a shell in Cunningham Alley approximately thirty minutes after the video shows the three people leaving the alley.
Based on clothing, phone records, and additional surveillance video, Sgt. Corby identified the three as Jerry Robinson, Taurien Corbin, and Robert Christie. Robinson was seen on video carrying a white plastic bag, and Corbin was seen carrying a black backpack.
Trenton surveillance video last shows Christie in the company of Jerry Robinson and Taurien Corbin at approximately 2:39 a.m. in the area of 724 Quinton Avenue, Trenton. Robinson and Corbin make their wa on foot to a Roadrunner Gas Station in Trenton where they are picked up by an Uber driver at 3:19 a.m.
Detective David Hanks of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Detective Bureau testified that he received cell phone data and timing advance records from cell phone providers and used the records to track the location of the cell towers used to process communications and determine the locations of the cell phones belong to Jahua Mcrae, Taurien Corbin and Robert Christie.
The records show that cell phone devices initially traveled from Trenton to Levittown on January 18, 2020. The phone data confirm the men’s devices were in the vicinity of Murphy’s from approximately 11:50 p.m. January 18, to 12:50 a.m. on January 19. The detective pointed out that the phone data was consistent with the surveillance video from Murphy’s
Cell Data Records and Timing Advance Records show Mcrae’s Verizon device traveling in the direction of I-19 and ultimately coming to a stop at 1:22 a.m. just a few feet short of where police recovered Mcrae’s body. Mcrae’s T-Mobile device was also processing data in the same area at 1:23 a.m. Corbin and Christie’s devices also processed data in that area at the same time period.
Pennsylvania State Police recovered Mcrae’s Verizon device from the scene, but his T-Mobile device was not recovered. Detective Hanks testified the Cell Data Records and Timing Advance Records show Mcrae’s T-Mobile device traveled, along with Corbin’s and Christie’s devices, from the scene of the body to Trenton. The records corroborated that these mobile devices were processing data in the same time surveillance video shows Corbin Christi, and Jerry Robinson traveling from Cunningham Alley in Trenton at approximately 2:25 a.m. on January 19, 2020.
An anonymous witness testified that that Robert Christie shot and killed Joshua Mcrae in a vehicle occupied by Christie, Mcrae, Jerry Robinson and Corbin on Interstate 95 in Bristol Township. The witness testified Christie received a handgun from Corbin and used that weapon to shoot Mcrae. The witness stated that Robert Christie removed Mcrae’s body from the vehicle and left the body on the die of the highway. Robert Christie burned the vehicle in Trenton, NJ and left the scene with Jerry Robinson and Corbin. The witness stated that Corbin and Robinson left with the handgun Christie used to shoot Mcrae and with a cellphone belonging to the victim. Jerry Robinson and Corbin disposed of the phone in Trenton and Corbin disposed of the weapon in New York according to witness testimony.
The men have testified that claiming that they are not members their selves, but others may consider them Bloods gang members or “associates” of the Blood Street Gang, Nine Trey Blood.
A man who is a patron of Murphy’s would provide security for the bar and also sell or resell cellular devise testified he received $600.00 cash from Bias Robinson in exchange for a 250 gigabyte iPhone XS Max. The exchange was in the bar’s kitchen. He told police the money seemed counterfeit in part due to strange markings on it. He became angry and threw the money and confronted Bian Robinson over his concerns of the fake money. The man said he was not affiliated with the Blood gang but believed all the men who were with Mcrae that night were affiliated with the Blood gang.
The Twentieth Bucks County Investigating Grand Jury of January 13, 2022, recommended that the District Attorney for Bucks County institute appropriate criminal charges as recommended in the Presentment on the following charges:
Robert Shannon Christie
- Criminal Homicide – Victim-Joshua Mcrae
- Criminal Conspiracy
- Co-conspirator Taurien Corbin
- Co-conspirator Jerry Robinson
- Person Not To Possess Firearm
- Tampering with Physical Evidence.
- Vehicle
- Firearms(s)
- Flight to Avoid Apprehension
- Abuse of Corpse
- Victim-Joshua Mcrae
- Possession of an Instrument of a Crime
- Hindering Apprehension
Taurien Corbin
- Person Not To Possess Firearm
- Unlawful Transfer of Firearm
- To Robert Christie
- Tampering with Physical Evidence
- Vehicle
- Firearm(s)
- Abuse of Corpse
- Hindering Apprehension
Jerry Earl Robinson
- Tampering with Physical Evidence
- Vehicle
- Firearm(s)
- Abuse of Corpse
- Hindering Apprehension
Related MidJersey.news story here from August 15, 2022
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