A former New Jersey police officer has been sentenced to a total of 27 years in prison for shooting and killing one man and wounding another during a high-speed car chase in Newark five and a half years ago.
Citing the need to curb officers’ “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality, Superior Court Judge Michael Lavin on Friday sentenced former Newark police officer Giovanny Crespo to 20 years for manslaughter and seven years for assault in a January 2019 pursuit, NJ.com reported.
Jury returns in trial of New Jersey state trooper accused of shooting and killing suspect during high-speed chase
The sentences will run consecutively. The judge imposed a six-year sentence for official misconduct, which will run concurrently with the other sentences. NJ.com reported that Crespo, 31, slumped in his chair and his family cried when the judge told him he would not be eligible for parole for 22 years and 11 months.
Former Newark, New Jersey police officer Giovanny Crespo was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Earlier, Crespo broke down in tears after his mother and sister pleaded for leniency, before standing to offer a brief apology to the victims’ families.
Dashboard and police body camera footage from the chase showed Crespo jumping out of his patrol car and firing three times during the chase. Essex County prosecutors said state guidelines allow for the use of deadly force only if an officer or someone else is in “imminent danger” of death or serious injury.
His lawyer, Isaac Wright Jr., asked for leniency, telling the judge that Crespo had less than two years of service and was inadequately trained, so his superiors should have called off the pursuit in January 2019. Prosecutors said Crespo had more than six months of training at the police academy, where he was instructed on how to properly use lethal force.
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Rabin agreed, saying the defendants were “exhaustively trained” and that the five-minute pursuit through Newark that left 46-year-old driver Gregory Griffin dead and his passenger seriously injured was an “abhorrent abuse of police power.”
