Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw announced that a 32-year-old Lindenwold man was found guilty today of killing a man in a Mount Laurel hotel room four years ago after luring him there to be robbed.
The jury deliberated for two hours before returning multiple guilty verdicts against Jawaad Ali in Superior Court in Mount Holly. Ali, who represented himself at trial, was convicted on charges of Murder (First Degree), Robbery (First Degree), Kidnapping (First Degree), Conspiracy to Commit Robbery (Second Degree), Desecration of Human Remains (Second Degree), Wrongful Impersonation (Third Degree), and Credit Card Theft (Fourth Degree).
The Hon. Terrence R. Cook, P.J.Cr., scheduled sentencing for September 27. Two co-defendants have pled guilty and are also awaiting sentencing.
The investigation revealed that on the night of May 8, 2020, Ali, along with Asia Boone and Anthony Sermond-Guyton, lured Samer Alhalayqa, 31, of Camden, to the Fairfield Inn on Century Parkway, where he was suffocated in a third-floor room and then dragged into the hallway.
His debit card was subsequently used to withdraw funds from a nearby automated teller machine, order items from Amazon.com and pay for pizza from Papa John’s.
Ali was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Nicole C. Lister and Assistant Prosecutor David Kras Bakardjiev. Boone and Sermond-Guyton were prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Hutchinson.
The investigation was conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Mount Laurel Police Department. The lead investigators were BCPO Detective Sergeant Brian Cunningham and MLPD Detective Sergeant Sean Bristow.