A judge sentenced 29-year-old Ahigjah Broomes to 55 years in New Jersey State Prison for stalking and fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend, 20-year-old Akirah Townes, on a Montclair street in 2018 as she loaded a car for a trip to Virginia Beach with friends. The sentence, handed down by Superior Court Judge Marysol Rosero, means Broomes will not be eligible for parole for nearly 47 years.
According to nj.com, Rosero formally imposed the sentence on September 9, though the Essex County Prosecutor's Office did not publicly announce it until September 15. Townes had ended her relationship with Broomes about four months before her death, and her family has said he harassed and stalked her in the aftermath of the breakup. Broomes approached her while armed with a knife near Hartley Street and Bloomfield Avenue at around 6 a.m. on April 27, 2018, and stabbed her multiple times before fleeing the scene.
Townes was rushed to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, where she was pronounced dead at 6:42 a.m., roughly 45 minutes after the attack, per nj.com's reporting. Broomes turned himself in at Orange Police Department headquarters the day after the stabbing. He was later convicted in March 2026 by a jury that found him guilty of first-degree murder, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, following a six-day trial in Essex County Superior Court.
A Case That Took Eight Years to Reach Trial
The March 23, 2026, verdict closed out a criminal case that had been pending for more than eight years since Broomes' arrest in April 2018, as News 12 New Jersey reported, noting that Townes' family endured a long wait for judicial closure. Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Simonetti tried the case alongside Assistant Prosecutor Melanie Laprade. Simonetti said the prosecutor's office will continue seeking justice for domestic-violence victims and prosecuting offenders, adding that the sentence cannot bring Townes back or heal her loved ones' pain.
Homicide investigations in Essex County municipalities like Montclair are typically handled jointly by local police departments and the Essex County Prosecutor's Office Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force, a multi-agency unit that pools detectives from Newark, Orange, East Orange, and Irvington, according to information the prosecutor's office previously provided to Hoodline.
Remembering a Student on Track to Teach
Townes, one of 11 children and an Orange resident, was a Kean University student studying special education who had earned a spot on the Dean's List during the fall semester before her death. She was months away from completing her undergraduate degree and set to graduate that summer, as the Montclair Local reported via NJ.com. Her older brother, Kayron Townes, described her as someone who knew what she wanted in life and pursued it.
Days after the killing, on May 5, 2018, Townes' family organized a domestic violence awareness rally and march in Orange, walking from her family home to Orange Police Department headquarters and Lincoln Avenue School to celebrate her life, according to Patch. Friends who were with Townes that morning reportedly attempted to intervene during the attack before Broomes fled.
How New Jersey's Sentencing Laws Apply
Under New Jersey's No Early Release Act, defendants convicted of first-degree violent crimes must serve a mandatory 85 percent of their total term before becoming eligible for parole, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. That requirement means Broomes must complete 46 years and nine months behind bars before any release consideration, a mechanism established under state law in 1997 to eliminate standard early parole eligibility for violent felonies, per an explanation from John W. Tumelty Criminal Defense. First-degree murder convictions in New Jersey carry a statutory minimum of 30 years up to life imprisonment, with capital punishment having been abolished statewide in 2007, according to Ratliff Jackson LLP.
Townes' murder adds to a broader pattern tracked at the state level. New Jersey law enforcement agencies recorded 63,058 domestic violence offenses in 2020, with intimate partner homicides accounting for 29 deaths statewide that year, according to New Jersey State Police data reported by NJ Spotlight News. Research compiled by 180 Turning Lives Around and the Rutgers Center on Violence Against Women and Children has found that women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rate of intimate partner and dating violence of any demographic group, underscoring the elevated risks young women can face during and after relationship breakups.
The Essex County Prosecutor's Office maintains a confidential criminal-activity tips line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC (1-877-847-7432) for anyone with information related to ongoing investigations.
