On September 23, 2021, Essex County jail inmate, 22-year-old Jayshawn Boyd, was brutally beaten by seven other inmates in the common area. The seven-to-one attack led to Boyd being knocked unconscious from repeated punches and feet stomping to his head. After a corrections officer attempted to aid the situation by calling for assistance, three inmates, Byad Lockett, Darryl Watson, and Isaad Jackson, had begun to strike Boyd in the head with a microwave oven, a multi-gallon beverage dispenser, a broom, a water cooler, a trash can, and a mop bucket full of water. Boyd suffered a traumatic brain injury from the attack.
Lockett and Watson were found guilty of First-Degree Attempted Murder, Second-Degree Aggravated Assault, and Third-Degree Possession of a Weapon (Microwave) for an Unlawful Purpose. Jackson was found guilty of third-degree Possession of a Mop Bucket and a Multi-Gallon Beverage Dispenser for the Unlawful Purpose of Attempted Murder. Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Edwab, who tried the case, commented that “This attack was utterly senseless.”
On September 6, 2023, Byad Lockett, Darryl Watson, and Isaac Jackson will appear before the Honorable Ronald D. Wigler, J.S.C., and be sentenced. However, Watson was scheduled to be sentenced on June 27, 2023, after being convicted of murder from a separate trial. Byad Lockett is currently serving a 12-year sentence in New Jersey State Prison after being convicted in February for Conspiracy to Commit Murder.
