Mercer Man Sentenced To Life Without Parole In 2021 Shooting Death: Prosecutor

TRENTON – A Trenton man was sentenced this week to life without parole for the July 14, 2021 murder of 53-year-old Pablo Herrera Chun, Mercer County Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey said Wednesday.

Blake Pittman, 33, received his life sentence on Monday from Mercer County Superior Court Judge J. Adam Hughes following his jury conviction on November 16, 2023. The court also sentenced Pittman to 10 years in prison with a five-year period of parole ineligibility for convictions of unlawful possession of a firearm and certain persons not to possess a firearm. All sentences will run concurrently.

The fatal shooting occurred around 8:39 p.m. on July 14, 2021, when Trenton Police received a Shot Spotter activation near 43 North Stockton Street. Officers found Herrera Chun suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. He was taken to the hospital where he died shortly after, Marbrey said.

Pittman was arrested two weeks later on July 28, 2021, at a Bensalem, Pennsylvania hotel by members of the U.S. Marshals NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force.

During a four-week trial in fall 2023, Mercer County Assistant Prosecutors William P. Fisher and Scott Gershman presented evidence showing that Pittman intended to shoot someone driving north on North Stockton Street but missed his target and instead struck Herrera Chun, who was walking on the sidewalk between Wood and Academy streets.

Pittman was convicted on all counts, including murder, possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a handgun, and certain persons not to possess a weapon.

At the time of the shooting, Pittman had been released from prison for less than a year after serving sentences for aggravated manslaughter and robbery. Due to these prior convictions and his murder conviction, the State sought a life sentence without parole under New Jersey's "Three Strikes Law" (N.J.S.A. 2C:43-7.1) rather than the standard 30-years-to-life term for murder.

However, after Pittman's conviction but before sentencing, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Erlinger v. United States, requiring that a jury—not a judge—must determine the facts that trigger New Jersey's "Three Strikes Law." This meant the State needed to empanel a new jury to determine if Pittman qualified as a "Three Strikes" offender.

"Assistant Prosecutors Fisher and Gershman could easily have accepted sentencing to the ordinary term for Pittman, but their drive for justice and quest to protect the community from future harm prompted them to push for more," Marbrey said. "As a result, on May 15, 2025, they secured a conviction by a jury that qualified Pittman for this week's sentence of life without parole. This was the first ever jury trial of its kind in the State of New Jersey, and I am extremely proud of the ambition and determination displayed by these assistant prosecutors."

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