May 19, 2021- 8:00 p.m.
A New Jersey man released from state prison early due to the coronavirus pandemic has been charged with killing two people during a shooting at a birthday party in Edgewater Park in January, authorities said.
Ronny L. Paden, 27, of Delran gunned down the two men on the 200 block of Dogwood Road shortly before 1 a.m. on January 24, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday.
James Gist III, 29, of Westampton was shot in the driver’s seat of a parked car while Marcus Thompson, 29, of Willingboro was in the house. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Neither was the intended target at the 10-person gathering, according to investigators.
Paden was released from state prison on November 4, 2020 under a law written to stop the spread of the COVID among state inmates. It reduced prison sentences of inmates with less than one year remaining.
Paden was serving a five-year term for aggravated assault and weapons possession and had been locked up at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton since June 2018, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina questioned the law in announcing charges against Paden, saying it “forces us to pause and consider the public safety implications of the drive over the past year to release inmates early, purportedly due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
“While no one wants state inmates or detainees placed at undue medical risk, the data suggests that inmates are no more likely to die of COVID-19 than any other New Jersey resident,” Coffina said.
“Due to ‘COVID credits’ applied to his sentence, this defendant and many other inmates have been released early from duly-imposed sentences without any individualized consideration of the crime for which they were convicted or the risk that they will resume their criminal activities,” the prosecutor said.
Paden is charged with two counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and three weapons offenses in the Edgewater Park slaying. He was arrested May 7.
Judge Christopher J. Garrenger ordered Paden held in the county jail during a hearing Wednesday.
His attorney, Trenton-based Robin Kay Lord, couldn’t immediately be reached Wednesday.
