A 66-year-old New York man who drove from Newburgh to Nutley, New Jersey, on the Fourth of July last year as part of a planned attack on a teenager outside his mother's home has been convicted of attempted murder. An Essex County jury found Armando Villareal Mena, of Newburgh, New York, guilty of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree attempted murder and second-degree aggravated assault in the attack on 19-year-old Jahniel Perez, Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II announced. The jury returned its verdict on October 23, 2026, after one day of deliberations, and the prosecutor's office publicly announced the conviction on Friday, October 30.
Source: Essex County Prosecutor's Office
NJ Today News, reporting the same announcement out of Newark, confirmed the verdict and its terms: Mena was convicted on all three counts — conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder, both in the first degree, and aggravated assault in the second degree — and the man who actually fired the shots has still not been identified. Englebrook Independent News, which also covered the prosecutor's announcement, reported the same conviction, the same December sentencing date and the same potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Source: NJ Today News
July 4, 2025: a smashed car window used as a lure
The prosecution proved at trial that on July 4, 2025, Mena and a co-conspirator drove from Newburgh, New York, across the state line to the home of Perez's mother in Nutley, a township in Essex County, New Jersey. Surveillance video showed their vehicle circling the block before stopping in front of the house. Mena was seen smashing the window of a car belonging to Perez's mother — a deliberate act, prosecutors said, to lure the 19-year-old out of the house.
Source: Essex County Prosecutor's Office
When Perez came outside, the trap closed. The co-conspirator fired 12 shots at Perez as Mena drove toward the victim, the prosecutor's office said. Perez was struck by gunfire four times. The two assailants fled the scene. Perez's mother then transported her wounded son in the same damaged vehicle to a local hospital for treatment. Perez survived the attack.
Source: Essex County Prosecutor's Office
Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Byrnes: 'We thank the jury for their time and careful deliberation during this trial in reaching this verdict.' Assistant Prosecutor Alexander Wukovits: 'We are thankful to have secured justice for Jahniel Perez and his family. This verdict would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of the ECPO Homicide Task Force, the Nutley Police Department, and the Newburgh Police Department.'
Arrested three days later in Newburgh — and he admitted driving
The investigation moved quickly. Three days after the shooting, on July 7, 2025, Mena was arrested in Newburgh while driving the same suspect vehicle seen in the Nutley surveillance video. Following his arrest, he gave a statement to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office Homicide Task Force in which he admitted to being the driver on the night of the attack, the prosecutor's office said. The case was investigated by the ECPO Homicide Task Force together with the Nutley Police Department in New Jersey and the Newburgh Police Department in New York — a two-state investigation for a two-state crime.
Source: Essex County Prosecutor's Office
The shooter is still unknown, and the investigation is still open
One central figure in this case has never been caught. The identity of the shooter — the co-conspirator who fired the 12 shots — remains unknown, and the investigation is ongoing, the prosecutor's office said. Mena's conviction therefore closes only half of the case: the driver has been convicted, but the man who pulled the trigger is still being sought. Anyone with information related to criminal activity is encouraged to contact the Essex County Prosecutor's Office confidential Tips Line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC (1-877-847-7432); all calls will remain confidential.
Source: Essex County Prosecutor's Office
What happens next: sentencing on December 18
Mena is scheduled to be sentenced on December 18, 2026, and faces a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. The case was tried by Assistant Prosecutors Christopher Byrnes and Alexander Wukovits before Superior Court Judge Joseph N. Minish in Essex County. Until sentencing, the second track of the case — the hunt for the unidentified gunman — continues, and a further arrest remains possible.
Source: Englebrook Independent News
Why this case matters beyond one Nutley street
The attack was not a spontaneous street dispute: on the evidence accepted by the jury, two men planned a killing, drove across a state line on a national holiday, and used damage to a mother's car to draw her son out of his home and into gunfire. That level of planning is exactly what first-degree conspiracy and attempted-murder charges are meant to capture, and it is why a 66-year-old with no role in firing a shot still faces up to two decades in prison as the driver. For residents of Nutley and the wider Essex County area — part of the same northern New Jersey corridor, alongside neighbouring Middlesex County communities such as Edison, where many Punjabi and South Asian families live and run businesses — the verdict closes a case that began with gunfire on a residential street on the most family-centred night of the American summer, even as the search for the actual shooter continues.