A Newark man was sentenced to life in state prison this week for gunning down a 50-year-old man who was seated in a wheelchair, capping a case built largely on surveillance footage that showed the killer returning to the scene hours after a heated argument. Shaheed Hall, 36, was sentenced for killing Deshaun Winston, who was shot three times, including twice in the head and once in the neck, on Osborne Terrace in Newark on April 28, 2024.
According to NJ.com, Hall and Winston argued before the shooting, and that earlier confrontation was captured on surveillance cameras, according to prosecutors. Police responded to the 300 block of Osborne Terrace in Newark's South Ward at 8:43 p.m. that night following reports of gunfire, and emergency responders pronounced Winston dead at 8:59 p.m., just 16 minutes later, per Patch.
Surveillance video showed Winston speaking with another man on Osborne Terrace when Hall opened fire, the report notes. The footage of the earlier argument between the two men, taken roughly two hours before the shooting, became central to the prosecution's case, as detailed by the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
A Jury Took Just Two Hours to Convict
A jury convicted Hall of murder and weapons offenses in July 2026 after deliberating for approximately two hours, returning guilty verdicts on first-degree murder, second-degree unlawful gun possession, and second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, per the same county prosecutor's account. Assistant Prosecutor Bryashia Atchison led the trial for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office following a joint investigation by the Newark Police Division and the Essex County Homicide Task Force, the office said.
Immediately after the jury's verdict, Hall pleaded guilty to additional charges of being a persistent offender and a person prohibited from possessing weapons, a development reported by Patch. Those admissions expanded his legal exposure.
Arrested Inside a Courthouse on Unrelated Charges
Hall was arrested in June 2024 and charged with murder after turning himself in on weapons charges, according to NJ.com. The arrest happened at the Essex County Veterans Courthouse in Newark, where Hall was appearing in court on a separate, unrelated matter involving weapons and drug charges, according to RLS Media.
Judge Romanyshyn presided over both the July 2026 trial and the October 2, 2026 sentencing hearing in Essex County Superior Court. RLS Media reported an additional eight-year term as consecutive, while NJ.com, attributing its account to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, reported that the term would run concurrently with the life sentence.
What a Life Sentence Actually Means Under State Law
Under New Jersey's No Early Release Act, individuals convicted of violent first-degree crimes like murder must serve a minimum of 85 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole, according to Justia Law. That means Hall must serve at least 85 percent of his life sentence before he can seek parole.
Separately, under New Jersey statute N.J.S.A. 2C:44-3(a), courts are authorized to sentence defendants age 21 or older to extended prison terms under persistent offender criteria if they have prior convictions on at least two separate occasions for crimes committed at different times while they were at least 18, per the same legal code. Hall's guilty plea to persistent offender status is what allowed for the enhanced sentencing structure handed down this week.
Hall, who is from Newark, now begins a sentence that, under state law, will keep him imprisoned for decades to come.
