Suspect Pleads Not Guilty To Murder On Mission Street

The 27-year-old Bloomfield man accused of shooting Bloomfield resident Ibn Futrell to death on Mission Street in Montclair in February pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of murder and illegal gun possession, according to The Montclair Times.

The article said that defendant Harold Abnathya appeared bored as he was being arraigned before state Superior Court Judge Peter Vazquez in Newark. Indeed, the hearing only took two minutes.

The Montclair Times reports that Public Defender Sterling Kinsale entered a not-guilty plea on Abnathya's behalf and that the judge ruled that bail would be continued at $1 million cash or bond.

Essex County Assistant Prosecutor William Neafsey, of the Homicide Unit, said that the suspect took out a handgun and started shooting during "an altercation" on Mission Street outside the Mission Mini Market, near Mission Street's intersection with Bloomfield Avenue.

Evidence in the case is expected to go before a grand jury in four or five months.

Futrell, 29, was shot in the back at about 9 p.m. on Feb. 7 and died at Mountainside Hospital shortly afterwards.

The shooting death has prompted calls from the community for a greater police presence in the 4th ward. On February 10, three days after the shooting, Montclair residents held a community meeting to address concerns with the high crime rate. Some residents expressed frustration, saying the township provided inadequate police presence and inadequate street lighting in that area. Mission Street residents claimed it was so dark that night, police had a hard time even locating the body of the fatally wounded Futrell.