The Trenton Times published the following article on February 20, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton man charged in gangland drive-by shooting is accused of threatening to kill witness

By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton 
on February 20, 2013 at 6:48 AM, updated February 20, 2013 at 6:52 AM

TRENTON — Prosecutors in a hearing on witness tampering yesterday described a spate of gang violence in the capital city that they say has a Trenton woman caught in the crosshairs, fearing for her life.

Fred Scott, 26, is accused of having fired roughly 20 shots during a drive-by attack on Stuyvesant Avenue Christmas night. One of those bullets hit an innocent bystander in the shoulder, and that woman identified Scott as the shooter, Assistant Prosecutor Cindy Liccardo said.

She said that Scott, a “high ranking” member of the Bloods gang, posted bail and decided to slay the woman for talking to the police, with help from his fellow gangsters.
“The word on the street was his intention to execute her,” Liccardo said.

On the night of the shooting, Scott had been attempting to hit 20-year-old Nathaniel Moore, one of his rivals in an ongoing “war” between gangsters along a few blocks of Stuyvesant, she said.

The woman, whose name is being withheld, became terrified when she heard Scott was coming after her, Liccardo said.

She came to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office for protection, saying she was trying to sell her car as quickly as possible so that when she was driving around town she wouldn’t be as recognizable, Liccardo said. She also was intending to buy a bulletproof vest to wear to protect herself as she faced what she believed was an imminent shooting, the prosecutor said.

“Being a snitch in the city is a gamble on your life,” Liccardo said.

Scott’s bail was revoked on Feb. 7, and his attorney, John Hartmann said that because the state has no evidence that his client made threats toward the woman, there are no grounds for any charge of witness tampering or reason to hold his client without bail.
“The state is simply trying to keep my client locked up,” Hartmann said.

Liccardo said Scott is affiliated with another gangster, Jermel Carter, 30, who was briefly a prime suspect in the shooting of a Trenton police SUV on Stuyvesant Avenue in May and later was critically wounded July 3 during a shooting on Stuyvesant that remains unsolved.

Liccardo said Carter was initially the target of a shooting that set off the gang war on Stuyvesant.

Carter and Moore both have addresses on the 400 block of Stuyvesant Avenue, while Scott lives on Elmhurst Avenue, a side street of Stuyvesant between the 800 and 900 blocks.

In the July shooting, Carter was wounded in the neck, forearm and torso and nearly died. The shooting happened in broad daylight on Stuyvesant Avenue near the intersection with Adam Avenue. Carter recovered, but no arrests have been made in that case, police said.

On Sept. 10, a 27-year-old man was shot in the leg as gunfire rang out from a vehicle driving down the first block of Elmhurst Avenue. Police did not identify the victim and have made no arrests, much like a shooting the afternoon of Nov. 25 that left a 20-year-old man wounded at the intersection of Stuyvesant Avenue and Christoph Street, which also remains unsolved.

The Dec. 25 shooting was on the 800 block of Stuyvesant Avenue. The 29-year-old woman was walking when she saw a couple of cars parked in the street, Lt. Steve Varn said. As she walked past, she heard about 20 shots and was hit.

Scott was later arrested on aggravated assault and weapons charges, but Liccardo said the victim came to the Prosecutor’s Office in January, just after Scott posted bail and was released from prison. “She didn’t think she would make it through the weekend,” Liccardo said.

After further investigation of the threats by the prosecutor’s office, Liccardo said Scott was charged with tampering with a victim — a first-degree charge used sparingly by Mercer prosecutors and investigators.

Liccardo said Scott was in violation of a condition of his release on bail because he had indirect contact with the woman, the unintended victim of the shooting. Scott told someone who knew the woman that he intended to kill her, she said.

Scott’s $75,000 bail was revoked on Feb. 7. At the hearing yesterday morning in Superior Court, Judge Thomas Brown ruled that he will have to stay in jail with his bail revoked. Brown set Scott’s bail at $100,000 for the witness tampering charge.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at (609) 989-5717 or jpizzi@njtimes.com.