DEFENDANT RESPONSIBLE FOR MULTIPLE CHARGES IN TWO COUNTIES PLEADS GUILTY IN OCEAN COUNTY
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Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato today announced that Defendant Ali Brown, 33, Seattle, Washington last known address, today plead guilty before Judge Cunningham to Robbery, first degree, and Unlawful Possession of a Handgun, second degree.
The guilty plea stems from the June 29, 2014 incident in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey where the defendant, Ali M. Brown approached the victim, Harold Fournier, outside of the Green Planet Coffee Shop. Defendant displayed a handgun he had tucked into his waistband to the victim while demanding he go with him. The victim instead fled inside the coffee shop screaming for help when the defendant ordered the victim and others to the ground at gunpoint, demanding the victim’s keys, cellphone and wallet. The victim surrendered his keys and wallet, but the defendant was unable to drive away because of his inability to drive a manual transmission vehicle.
The defendant eventually fled to Essex County where he committed another armed robbery for which he was tried and convicted.
The State will be seeking a life term in prison without parole when the defendant is sentenced on May 11, 2018. Today’s guilty plea will mark defendant’s third conviction under New Jersey’s “Three Strikes Law” in which criminals convicted for three specifically enumerated crimes are sentenced to life in prison without the ability for parole upon that third conviction.
Defendant Brown is currently serving a 37 year sentence for the first degree Robbery he committed in Essex County following the Point Pleasant Beach incident. Defendant Brown also faces life in prison without parole for charges of Terrorism, Murder, Robbery and associated weapons offenses, for the shooting death of Brendan Tevlin, one week before the Robbery in Point Pleasant Beach, for which defendant recently entered guilty pleas.
Given the prior convictions for Armed Robbery and Murder, defendant’s guilty plea today mandates that he receive life in prison without parole, which the State has agreed to run concurrently to his charges in Essex County.
Defendant Brown will then await extradition to the State of Washington, where he is charged in the murder of three people.
The case was prosecuted by Chief Trial Attorney Laura Pierro and Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Biringer.