Man enraged over Facebook comment brutally killed two children and woman, NJ cops say
A man was sentenced to centuries in prison in the brutal murders of two siblings — a 7-year-old and an 11-year-old — and their family friend after becoming “enraged over a Facebook comment,” a New Jersey prosecutor said.
He was also sentenced in the attempted murders of three others — the mother of the two children and her 13-year-old twin siblings, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Jeremy Arrington, 32, of Newark, was sentenced to 375 years in state prison on April 8, more than five years after “his terrible crimes,” the prosecutor’s office said in a news release that same day.
Before Arrington turned a Newark home into what a judge called “a house of horrors” in 2016, according to NBC New York, he had an extensive criminal record including four prior felony convictions, the prosecutor’s office said.
Authorities have said Arrington became “enraged” after one of his victims had reposted an alert on Facebook that publicly named him has a suspect in a separate shooting and sexual assault case, NJ.com reported.
Then, on Nov. 5, 2016, Arrington “unlawfully entered” the Newark home with a loaded gun and tied up all six people inside before stabbing and torturing them with kitchen knives, the prosecutor’s office said. The stabbings killed the two younger siblings who were ultimately pronounced dead at a hospital.
Additionally, Arrington fatally shot a 23-year-old woman, the family friend, who was inside the home, according to officials.
“Police were able to respond because a young girl with autism, who is unrelated to the family and was just visiting, escaped and called for help from her phone in a closet,” the news release said.
Emergency medical first responders saved the 29-year-old mother and her teenage twin siblings from their stab wounds, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Arrington fled the scene before police could arrest him but was caught the next day on Nov. 6, 2016 after he barricaded himself in a home, the office said.
Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Justin Edwab “argued for six consecutive life sentences given the number of people who were tortured and killed and Arrington’s lengthy prior criminal record,” according to the release.
“This defendant is pure evil and clearly deserves all 375 years in New Jersey State Prison,” Edwab said in a statement.
Arrington would need to serve 281 years of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole, the news release noted.
“These families have waited over 5 years for this moment, and we are all so grateful for this sentence,” Edwab said.
The victims are Ariel Little Whitehurst, 7, Al-Jahon Whitehurst, 11, and Syasia McBurroughs, 23, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Newark is roughly 60 miles northeast of Trenton.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 9:38 AM with the headline "Man enraged over Facebook comment brutally killed two children and woman, NJ cops say."
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