Burlington County Man Gets 58 Years in Prison for 2017 Murder

A Burlington County man has been sentenced to nearly six decades in prison for a fatal shooting in 2017.

26-year-old Douglas Lewis of Pemberton Township was sentenced to 58 years behind bars on Friday after he was found guilty of murder and weapons charges this past summer.

Authorities say an investigation began on the night of March 21, 2017, when officers with the Pemberton Township Police Department were called to the 100 block of Kinsley Road for a report of shots fired. There, cops found 24-year-old Shaquille Williams inside of a vehicle with several gunshot wounds; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

During a trial, Assistant Prosecutor Bob Van Gilst argued that Williams was killed as payback for robbing one of Lewis’s associates.

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Coffina says, "Lewis was previously convicted of weapons offenses and conspiring with Brandon Clifton to kill Williams. Clifton, 23, of Pemberton Township, is awaiting trial on similar charges."

"This was an execution, plain and simple. We are gratified to be able to bring justice to the family of the victim, and appreciative of a sentence that sends a very clear message that gun violence carried out in a cavalier fashion as in this case will not be tolerated," said Coffina in a press release.

The judge sentenced Breland to 48 years for the murder conviction and 10 years, to run consecutively, on a conviction for certain persons not to possess firearms.

Lewis, who has been in jail since he was arrested in the summer of 2018, must serve at least 85 percent of the murder sentence before becoming eligible for parole and a minimum of five years on the firearm charge.