Jury Convicts Asbury Park Man For ’97 Murder

A New Jersey Shore murder case that took more than a dozen years to come to trial has ended in a conviction.

A jury on Friday found Sean Harris guilty of murdering 19-year-old Andre Williams in 1997. Both men were from Asbury Park.

Prosecutors contended Harris accused Williams of stealing from him and ordered several others to participate in the crime so they would be unable to testify against him without implicating themselves.

Prosecutors say Williams was found in a park in Neptune in June 1997 after being beaten, burned, tied up, hanged, choked and stabbed.

Harris and the others were charged in 2009. His co-defendants pleaded guilty in exchange for testifying against him. The trial began in October. Jurors deliberated for about a day before reaching a verdict.

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