3 Sentenced for Fatal Stabbing of Romantic Rival at NJ Housing Complex

Three men have received lengthy prison terms for their roles in the stabbing death of a man killed at a northern New Jersey housing complex.

Damian Free and Justin Scott, both of Paterson, were each sentenced to 18 years in prison on Friday, while Herbert Mays, another Paterson resident, got 16 years. All three had pleaded guilty last month to aggravated manslaughter charges stemming from the October 2003 slaying of Ramod Gilchrist.

The Record reports that Free and Scott admitted stabbing Gilchrist several times at the Alexander Hamilton housing complex in Paterson. Mays admitted that he grabbed Gilchrist by the arm and punched and kicked him before he was stabbed.

Authorities have said the three men attacked Gilchrist because he was dating Free's ex-girlfriend. Gilchrist died the day after the stabbing, and the three men turned themselves in within the next two days.

The three were first tried on murder charges and were convicted of aggravated manslaughter in 2005. They were each sentenced in February 2006 to 30 years in prison, but an appeals court later reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial because a juror had looked up information about the case online.

The juror was excused at the time of the trial, but an appellate court ruled that wasn't enough because the juror could have shared that information with other panel members.

The retrial held in 2011 ended in a mistrial when jurors could not reach a verdict.