Witness Can Not Recall Statement Given to Lakewood Police Probing Matlosz Death

A frustrated prosecutor in the murder trial of Jahmell Crockam could not get a witness to recall a statement he had given to Lakewood police investigating the shooting death of Officer Christopher Matlosz.

"I don't recall saying that. I was high," the teenager said in testimony offered Tuesday morning on the fourth day of Crockam's trial.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Michael Weatherstone had asked if the teenager overhead a phone conversation while in the Golf View apartment of Daniela Hernandez in the moments before Matlosz was killed in January 2011. 

"You don't remember saying to the police that she got a call?" Weatherstone asked again.

When the teenager said that he could not recall overhearing a phone call, Weatherstone showed the witness the statement he had give to Lakewood police in February.

When testimony began Tuesday in 20-year-old Crockam's trial for the death of Matlosz, who was 27 when he was gunned down on August Drive in Lakewood last year, the witness, a relative of Crockam, told the court, "I don't want to be here today."

Appearing frustrated, Weatherstone pressed the teenager, though he repeatedly said he did not recall any of the statement given to police.

"You don't remember hearing the conversation and hearing that the cops were looking for 'Sav'?" Weatherstone asked, referring to the street name by which Crockham was known. 

Again, the witness answered negatively. Weatherstone asked the witness if he called Crockam by his street name or given name, since the statement showed the teenager referred to the defendant as "Sav." The witness responded that he called the defendant by his first name. 

Defense attorney Mark Fury asked if the witness had seen a weapon, calling back testimony given Monday in which a witness said that she saw what appeared to be a gun wrapped in a shirt.

"You don't recall anything that seemed like a gun?" Fury asked, to which the teenager replied no.

An order by Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels states that media may not report the names of minors involved in the trial, though they may be refered to by their initials.

Another minor witness said she spoke with Crockam outside of the Golf View apartments at the time when Matlosz arrived. She said that Crockam, wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and jeans, was in a back yard when he asked if the officer was still in the front of the building.

On cross examination, Fury asked if Crockam ran when he saw Matlosz arrive.

"Did Jahmell run? He stookd there and talked with you more?" he asked, to which the witness responded affirmatively.

The final witness of the morning was Ocean County Prosecutor's Office Detective Casey Long, who testified briefly to the veracity of phone records that were collected around the time of the shooting.