Story by Reporter Eloize
Jeffrey Holland, 30, of East Orange, NJ, was sentenced to 190 years in prison for the murders of three individuals: Tiniquah Rouse, 21, Ashley Jones, 23, and Jarrell Marshall, 28.
The victims were all residents of Newark and were killed over the course of two days in January of 2016. Holland was sentenced 60 years for each murder and an additional 10 years for being a convicted felon with a weapon. Under the No Early Release Act and the Graces Act, Holland must serve 158 years before being eligible for Parole.
On January 29th, 2016, Holland strangled and drowned Tiniquah Rouse whom he had a romantic relationship with. He then put her five-month-old baby in the apartment closet, covered the baby in clothes, and left the residence. Rouse was discovered deceased and descreated; the baby was discovered unharmed. The following day, Holland kicked down the apartment door of Ashley Jones and fatally shot her, and Jarrell Marshall. Holland shot them in front of three children, ages one, three, and four.
Holland and Jones previously dated, but were broken up. They were the parents of the children aged one and four. The third child, aged three, was Marshall’s daughter from another relationship. Jones and Marshall had recently started dating one another.
On Dec. 12, 2018 Holland was found guilty by an Essex County Jury of 18 counts, including three counts of murder, desecration of human remains, hindering, felony murder, burglary, theft, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, multiple counts of endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
Assistant Prosecutor Justin Edwab, who tried the case on behalf of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, said, “The sheer depravity and violence that occurred in this case is incomprehensible. This defendant brutally killed three innocent people and in the case of Rouse desecrated her body. His crimes are even more cruel because they were carried out in the presence of very young children, including two of his own children.’’
Presiding Judge Wigler said that the crimes committed “were the most depraved, heinous and cruel” that the judge has presided over during his tenure on the bench.
