Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy announced that a man was sentenced to state prison today for shooting a man and a woman outside a convenience store in Pleasantville in October 2014 because of an ongoing feud with the man. The two victims were wounded but survived the attack.
Andre Graves-Byrd, 26, of Pleasantville, was sentenced to 15 years in state prison, including 12 years and nine months of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Bernard E. DeLury Jr. in Atlantic County. He pleaded guilty on April 12 to two counts of first-degree attempted murder and one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon.
The shooting occurred on the early morning of Oct. 25, 2014, just after midnight, at North Main Street and Pleasantville Avenue in Pleasantville. The male victim, Hector Gonzalez, had entered a nearby convenience store while his girlfriend, Shadaija Morgan, waited outside. Graves-Byrd was involved in a feud with Gonzalez and believed that Gonzalez had busted out the back window of his car a few days earlier. He also believed Gonzalez had threatened him. While Gonzalez was in the convenience store, Graves-Byrd entered the store and the two men exchanged looks. After Gonzalez left the store and met Morgan, Graves-Byrd approached and opened fire with a .45-caliber handgun. Gonzalez was hit twice in the abdomen and once in the right arm, and he received a graze wound to his inner thigh. Morgan was shot in the lower back. Both victims were hospitalized but recovered from their wounds. Graves-Byrd fled in a car driven by a male friend and threw the handgun that he had used in the shooting into the water under the Route 30/Absecon Boulevard drawbridge in Atlantic City. Police searched the water under the bridge but the gun was not found.
“This defendant attempted to murder two people over a petty feud,” said Acting Attorney General Lougy. “This sentence protects the people of Atlantic County by ensuring that a very violent man will remain behind bars for many years to come.”
“This lengthy prison sentence is a testament to the collaborative work of the partnering agencies that make up the Atlantic City Task Force, and it perfectly reflects their mission, which is to make the community safer by removing dangerous criminals,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice.
Deputy Attorney General James Ruberton prosecuted the case for the Division of Criminal Justice. The case was investigated by the Atlantic City Task Force, which includes the Division of Criminal Justice, New Jersey State Police, Atlantic City Police Department, Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office, Pleasantville Police Department, and New Jersey State Parole Board.
