A New Jersey gangster has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a Nigerian man who he witnessed seeing urinating on his street.

Bloods member, Christopher Poole, murdered a 27-year-old photographer named Rasheed “O.J.” Olabode, by shooting him in the heart, while the victim pleaded for mercy.

Poole saw Olabode urinating behind a parked car in Newark in April 2018 and as a result, he confronted him.

According to the prosecutors, surveillance video showed the victim begging the suspect to have mercy, but Poole “executed” him anyway.

NJ.com said:

The only mistake that appears the victim made was going to relieve himself in front of the wrong person,

prosecutor Jason Goldberg told Superior Court of Essex County.

And that simple, simple act — something that every single person does, every single day — was enough in the eyes of Mr. Poole to execute a man, shoot him in the heart as he prayed and tried talking his way out of it.

Poole, who bears a tattoo of a hand giving the middle finger on his throat, has a lengthy criminal record that dates back to when he was only 15 years old, the website said.

Superior Court Judge, Ronald Wigler, noted the suspect’s “utter lack of remorse” for committing the murder in front of two of Olabode’s friends.

Wigler, who has served as a Superior Court judge for ten years, said:

This was certainly one of the most — if not the most — senseless murder cases that I have presided over and been involved with.

Poole was on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, sentenced to life imprisonment for committing first-degree murder. He was additionally sentenced to 10 years in prison for one weapons offence, which the judge declared will run concurrently.

Poole must serve at least 63 years before he would be eligible for parole under the state’s No Early Release Act.

One of Poole’s two sisters cried and fled the court when his sentence was announced.

I know his heart. I know that this isn’t the person that he wanted to become,

his sister disclosed to NJ.com.

the slain man, Olabode, was a Nigeria. His family were not able to travel to New Jersey for the sentencing, the court was told.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.