Mercer Gang Member Gets Life Sentence For Bucks Co. Murder

MERCER COUNTY, NJ —A New Jersey gang member was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for the January 2020 murder of Joshua Mcrae, authorities said.

Robert S. Christie, 37, of Trenton, was found guilty in October by a Bucks County jury of first-degree murder, flight to avoid apprehension, hindering apprehension, possession of an instrument of crime, and abuse of a corpse, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.
The jury found he shot and killed Mcrae in a car, then dumped his body on the side of the interstate.

During the sentencing hearing, relatives of Mcrae told Common Pleas Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr., about the impact his murder has had on their lives.

The mother of two of Mcrae’s children read impact statements written by herself and two of Mcrae’s daughters.

One of the daughter’s described his murder as a “nightmare that became reality.”
Fighting through tears, Mcrae’s sister said she was angry and heartbroken that her brother will not be around for his children and thanked the investigators on the case, “I am thankful for the detectives and prosecutor in Bucks County for finding justice for my brother.”

After hearing from the family, Bateman sentenced Christie to life in prison followed by a consecutive sentence of 12-60 months.

A jury convicted Christie following a weeklong trial prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher W. Rees, who described Christie as a “man of violence who has made crime his business.”

Police found Mcrae’s body early Jan. 19, 2020, on the side of I-295, near the Pennsylvania Turnpike onramp in Bristol Township.

An autopsy determined the 31-year-old Trenton man had been shot five times and his death was ruled a homicide.

The investigation found that Mcrae, Christie, and two other men went to Murphy’s Beef and Ale in Bristol Township on the night of Jan. 18, 2020.

On the drive home, Mcrae, sitting in the backseat of his sport-utility vehicle, made a drunken comment that Christie took as disrespectful.

Christie, the front-seat passenger, turned around and repeatedly shot Mcrae, then dragged Mcrae out of the SUV and dumped him on the side of the highway in Bristol Township.

He attempted to shoot Mcrae again while he was outside the SUV, but the gun was empty.
Pennsylvania State Police and Bucks County Detectives charged Christie and two other men in August 2022 following a recommendation by the Bucks County Investigating Grand Jury.

Christie, an admitted Blood gang member, took the witness stand at trial and told the jury he killed Mcrae in self-defense.