By John Burton | |
FREEHOLD — For shooting someone he knew 10 times, a jury’s conviction means a former Red Bank man could face 20 years to life in state prison.
FREEHOLD — For shooting someone he knew 10 times, a jury’s conviction means a former Red Bank man could face 20 years to life in state prison.
A Superior Court jury on Tuesday afternoon came back with convictions for Anthony Sims Jr., 28, who shot a man in a Red Bank residential neighborhood in 2014.
According to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, the jury found Sims guilty of first degree attempted murder, second degree unlawful possession of a firearm and second degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Sims, who had been living in Long Branch at the time of his arrest, had been a longtime Red Bank resident who, on April 9, 2014, fired approximately 15 shots from a semi-automatic handgun into a car parked on Willow Street, a residential area on Red Bank’s West Side.
According to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, the jury found Sims guilty of first degree attempted murder, second degree unlawful possession of a firearm and second degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Sims, who had been living in Long Branch at the time of his arrest, had been a longtime Red Bank resident who, on April 9, 2014, fired approximately 15 shots from a semi-automatic handgun into a car parked on Willow Street, a residential area on Red Bank’s West Side.
Sims, with evidence indicating his face was covered by a sweatshirt hood and bandana, shot Perry Veney about 10 times, while area residents, many of them young children, were outside on the warm spring early evening. He critically wounded Veney, who had just visited his grandmother and was sitting in a car parked in her driveway.
Veney had clung to life, being flown by helicopter to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, where he under went numerous surgeries and blood transfusions during his extended stay there.
Veney had clung to life, being flown by helicopter to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, where he under went numerous surgeries and blood transfusions during his extended stay there.
During the trial, prosecutor Martha Nye told the court Sims and Veney and their respective extended families had known each other for many years, having been neighbors in Red Bank. That is until the two groups had a falling out, causing longstanding bad blood and culminating in the shooting.
John Perrone, a Long Branch lawyer representing Sims, said on Wednesday, “I’m disappointed in the decision,” stressing “I think it was clear whoever the shooter was, the face was covered up. There’s no way anybody could know who it was. The evidence was clear.”
Perrone will seek to appeal Sims’ conviction, “and I think we’ll be successful on appeal.”
Sims had previously been convicted for attempted manslaughter for a 2010 Red Bank shooting of two brothers in the area of the Montgomery Terrace housing project on Red Bank’s West Side. That incident left one victim paralyzed and Sims sentenced to a seven-year state prison sentence. At the time of the arrest for the Veney shooting, Sims was under parole supervision for the 2010 shooting, having been released on Jan. 13, 2014—just three months before shooting Veney.
John Perrone, a Long Branch lawyer representing Sims, said on Wednesday, “I’m disappointed in the decision,” stressing “I think it was clear whoever the shooter was, the face was covered up. There’s no way anybody could know who it was. The evidence was clear.”
Perrone will seek to appeal Sims’ conviction, “and I think we’ll be successful on appeal.”
Sims had previously been convicted for attempted manslaughter for a 2010 Red Bank shooting of two brothers in the area of the Montgomery Terrace housing project on Red Bank’s West Side. That incident left one victim paralyzed and Sims sentenced to a seven-year state prison sentence. At the time of the arrest for the Veney shooting, Sims was under parole supervision for the 2010 shooting, having been released on Jan. 13, 2014—just three months before shooting Veney.
Sims, who remains incarcerated in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, Freehold, is scheduled to appear before Judge Thomas F. Scully on Aug. 18 for sentencing. Because of his prior record he will face a minimum sentence of 20 years to a maximum of life in state prison, according to the prosecutor’s office. Any sentence imposed would subject Sims to the state’s No Early Release Act, requiring him to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before being considered for parole.
The victim, Veney, who is now in his early 30s, is facing murder and weapons charges. Veney, along with Frederick Reed, a Delaware man, is accused of the July 10, 2015 killing of Rasheem Palmer, a Red Bank man, outside an Eatontown apartment complex.
The victim, Veney, who is now in his early 30s, is facing murder and weapons charges. Veney, along with Frederick Reed, a Delaware man, is accused of the July 10, 2015 killing of Rasheem Palmer, a Red Bank man, outside an Eatontown apartment complex.
This article was first published in the July 13-20, 2017 print edition of The Two River Times.
