A Passaic County jury convicted two Paterson men of murder this week in the December 2021 shooting death of 25-year-old Jasmin Wel, who was gunned down while sitting in her car outside her own home. The jury acquitted a third co-defendant of all charges in the same case, closing out a trial that stretched nearly five years from the night Wel was killed.
Jefersson Gonzalez and Elvis DeJesus were both found guilty of first-degree murder, according to News 12 New Jersey, which reported that prosecutors said the two men shot Wel while she sat in her vehicle on East 24th Street. A third defendant, Kristian Gonzalez of Lyndhurst, who had been arrested in April 2022 and charged with murder in the case, was acquitted of all charges by the same jury on October 6, as reported by Wayne, NJ Patch. Kristian Gonzalez had originally been seized by federal and local authorities at a home on East 30th Street in Paterson.
Verdict Followed Days of Deliberation
The trial before Superior Court Judge Justine A. Niccollai began with jury selection in early August and concluded after three days of deliberation, with Passaic County Senior Assistant Prosecutors Melissa M. Simsen and Ali Y. Ozbek securing the convictions, per Jersey Alerts. The case leaned heavily on testimony from Paterson police detectives, county investigators, state forensic scientists, and medical examiners, the outlet's report notes.
Beyond the murder counts, the jury also convicted both Jefersson Gonzalez and DeJesus of second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and fourth-degree tampering with evidence, according to the Paterson Times. Evidence tampering counts in firearm homicides frequently involve the concealment or disposal of weapons, the outlet notes.
Who Was Jasmin Wel
Wel was a 2018 graduate of William Paterson University who studied business marketing and was working as a sales account manager for a fragrance and skincare company at the time she was killed, according to Daily Voice. Paterson police officers responded to reports of gunfire around 8:18 p.m. on December 2, 2021, at 661 East 24th Street near Broadway, where they found Wel before she was taken to St. Joseph's University Medical Center, where she died, the article notes.
Wel's killing marked Paterson's 28th homicide of 2021, a total that exceeded the city's homicide count from the previous year, per Daily Voice. The city was experiencing a stretch of heightened gun violence that fall, including another woman's fatal shooting ten blocks away just eight days earlier, the outlet reported.
Multi-Agency Manhunt Led to 2022 Arrests
The investigation that eventually led to arrests drew on federal agencies including the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force working alongside the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office and Paterson Police, the same report states. Federal agents assisted local officers in serving arrest warrants tied to the shooting.
Jefersson Gonzalez now faces a separate first-degree murder charge in Bergen County Superior Court for the March 8, 2022, shooting death of 26-year-old John Anthony DeLeon in Lodi, New Jersey, according to Daily Voice. DeLeon was killed in a hail of more than 20 gunshots in an apartment complex parking lot roughly three months after Wel's murder, the outlet reported.
Sentencing and Next Steps
Following their October 6 convictions, both Jefersson Gonzalez and Elvis DeJesus were remanded to custody at the Bergen County Jail to await sentencing, per Jersey Alerts. Kristian Gonzalez, despite his acquittal in the Wel case, remains detained as he awaits separate trial proceedings in Hackensack, the outlet reported.
First-degree murder convictions in New Jersey carry a mandatory statutory prison sentence ranging from 30 years to life, while the second-degree weapons offenses carry five to 10 years and the fourth-degree evidence tampering charge carries up to 18 months, according to the Paterson Times. Sentencing for both men is scheduled before Judge Niccollai on January 4, 2027.
