A Mount Laurel, New Jersey, man, captured on video in 2021 harassing and intimidating his Black neighbors, has been sentenced to eight years in jail after taking a plea cope with the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Workplace.
Edward Cagney Mathews pleaded with Superior Court docket decide Gerard H. Breland on Friday, Dec. 8, for a extra lenient sentence, however his plea was unsuccessful. The decide issued a sentence specifying that Mathews should serve no less than 4 years in jail earlier than being eligible for parole.
With tears, he accepted accountability for his actions earlier than the courtroom and provided an apology to people who he damage along with his “insensitive and disrespectful” rants and actions, all stemming from deeply ingrained racist beliefs.
He went on to specific how his conduct brought about disgrace and ache to his household and in addition led to the dissolution of his marriage. He mentioned his spouse filed for divorce and offered their townhome, and since being in jail for the final two-and-a-half years, he has misplaced all his belongings.
“Each saint has a previous, and each sinner has a future. I wish to decide to rebuild the neighborhood,” Mathews mentioned on the sentencing listening to, in keeping with The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The sentencing comes after the 47-year-old pleaded responsible to 4 counts of bias intimidation and possession of a managed harmful substance with intent to distribute on Tuesday. Oct. 17. The footage, which went viral on social media, confirmed him verbally harassing his Black neighbors with racial slurs and spitting on him from his doorsteps, difficult them to “come see” him and calling a few of them “monkeys.”
Along with the verbal altercation, Mathews additionally put feces on his Black neighbors’ property, despatched emails to the Black residents of the Essex Place condominium affiliation, and shot BB gun pellets at their autos.
The person has been terrorizing his Black neighbors within the South Jersey neighborhood since 2020, in keeping with the prosecution, however famous nobody within the tenants’ affiliation was ever in a position to collect proof to cost him with against the law.
Assistant County Prosecutor Jamie Hutchinson introduced sufferer affect statements from 4 people, both present or former residents of the Mount Laurel condominium affiliation. Notably, these statements included views from LeRon Brown, the previous president of the owners affiliation, who’s Black, and his spouse Denise, who’s white.
“The actions of what he did will without end keep a nightmare of the concern and anxiousness he bestowed upon me. I’m continually trying over my shoulder and trusting nobody,” Denise Brown wrote in a press release.
She and her husband wound up transferring from the neighborhood due to their interactions with Mathews, uprooting the house they constructed over the past 20 years within the improvement. This household was not alone. One other Black board member of the affiliation moved out due to the racial harassment.
Burlington County prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw launched a press release following the sentencing.
“Our workplace is dedicated to combating bias crimes and sending a transparent message that such actions is not going to be tolerated in our neighborhood. No person ought to must endure what these victims skilled,” Bradshaw wrote.
His newest sentencing provides to the 11 felony convictions he has acquired since 1995.
The decide famous that since Mathews has spent 886 days in jail since he was arrested, he’ll credit score him with the time already spent in custody. This may make him eligible for parole in roughly 16 months.
Other than the imposed sentence, the courtroom mandated Mathews to pay $4,408 in restitution and bear racial sensitivity coaching whereas in jail. This coaching is meant to help his expressed objective of “rebuilding neighborhood.”
