Tyrell Lansing, accused of gunning down a Cedar Knolls man last summer outside a Morristown public housing building, would serve 30 years in state prison with no chance for parole in exchange for pleading guilty to first-degree murder.
Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Tara Wang disclosed the offer Monday at a virtual hearing before Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor.
Two other defendants charged in connection with the Aug. 18, 2021, shooting also appeared via Zoom.
DeQuan McDaniel, arrested with Lansing in Oklahoma about 30 hours after 35-year-old Raijah Scott was killed, is being offered concurrent four-year jail terms if he cops to a pair of third-degree hindering apprehension charges.
That’s a tougher deal than concurrent three-year terms that McDaniel rejected early last month.
The Highway Patrol in Tulsa pulled over McDaniel’s car to make the arrests. McDaniel, 27, of Dover, participated in Monday’s hearing from home, where he is confined pending trial.
Myles Dacres, charged with providing a phony alibi for Lansing, also would face four years behind bars for a plea to third-degree hindering.
The 24-year-old Morristown High graduate appeared via a video link from the Essex County Jail, where he’s being held on a charge that his alleged Morristown crime violated his probation for a 2019 federal weapons conviction.
Attorneys for all three defendants entered not guilty pleas on their behalf. They are scheduled back before Judge Taylor next month.
Wang said she anticipates filing motions to compel them to give investigators pass codes to their cell phones.
Lansing, who is 27 and has family in Morristown and North Carolina, was indicted on a murder charge and four weapons counts.
Authorities say he shot Scott multiple times. The 1 a.m. incident on Clyde Potts Drive was recorded by a security camera, though the video quality is sketchy, Superior Court Judge Thomas Critchley Jr. indicated at a prior hearing.
Public Defender Sharon Bittner Kean said she still is reviewing materials from the prosecution, with an eye toward motions seeking to dismiss Lansing’s indictment and suppress evidence.
Dacres’ lawyer, Mark Bailey, told Judge Taylor he contemplates making a counter-offer to the prosecution’s plea deal. Attorney William Johnson, representing McDaniel, said he may challenge terms of his client’s home detention.
