MOUNT HOLLY – Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced that a Riverside Township man was sentenced today to 10 years in New Jersey state prison for fatally shooting a woman during a party at his residence in April 2016.
The Hon. Terrence R. Cook, J.S.C., handed down the sentence to Darren Winningham, 44, who pled guilty last month in Superior Court to Aggravated Manslaughter (First Degree). Under the state’s No Early Release Act, Winningham must serve eight years and six months before becoming eligible for parole.
The investigation revealed that on the evening of April 23, 2016, police officers from Delanco, Delran, Edgewater Park and Riverside Township responded to a call about a subject with a gun at a party inside of an apartment in the 200 block of Hooker Street in Riverside Township.
Arriving officers found the victim, Nikita Cross, 35, of Galloway Township, on the floor with a gunshot wound to her chest. She was transported by the Delran Emergency Squad to Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro, where she was pronounced dead.
Winningham was taken into custody without incident, and has been lodged in the Burlington County Jail since his arrest.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Bob VanGilst, supervisor of the BCPO Major Crimes Unit. The investigation was conducted by detectives from the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and the Riverside Police Department. The lead investigators were BCPO Major Crimes Unit Detective Tony Luyber and Riverside Police Lt. Louis Fisher.