2 men convicted of soldier’s murder
NEWTON. A Sussex County jury found Jamaal Mellish and Hannan Aiken guilty on 11 counts in the 2020 fatal shooting of Cpl. Hayden Harris in Byram Township.
Newton /
| 01 Jul 2023 | 03:58
The body of Cpl. Hayden Harris was found in December 2020 in Byram Township.
Two Brooklyn men, Jamaal Mellish and Hannan Aiken, were convicted of various crimes related to the fatal shooting of Cpl. Hayden Harris in Byram Township in December 2020, acting Sussex County Prosecutor Annmarie Taggart said Wednesday, June 28.
A Sussex County jury found the men guilty on 11 counts, including murder, kidnapping, carjacking, conspiracy and hindering apprehension, after a six-week trial.
The men abducted Harris at gunpoint in Glen Park, N.Y., and took him to the area of Ross Road in Byram, where he was shot and killed. He was a 20-year-old soldier from Tennessee who was stationed at Fort Drum in New York.
His body was found by Byram Township firefighters, who were on their annual Santa ride.
“This is a tragic event in which the innocent life of Cpl. Harris was savagely taken over a dispute regarding a vehicle transaction. Jamaal Mellish and Hannan Aiken are now being held accountable for this act of senseless violence,” Taggart said.
Harris’s death was investigated by the Byram Township police; New Jersey State Police Crime Scene North; Jefferson County (N.Y.) Sheriff’s Office; Army Criminal Investigative Division at Fort Drum; New York Police Department’s Department of Investigation; and Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office major and high-tech crimes units.
“I would like to thank all of our law enforcement partners who worked collaboratively to bring about this just result,” Taggart said.
Mellish and Aiken face many decades in prison when they are sentenced by state Superior Court Judge Michael Gaus, who presided over the trial, she said.
