Asbury Park Man Gets 16 Years In State Prison For Shooting Death Of City Man: Prosecutor

Diquan Speights will be serving at least 85 percent of his 16-year state prison sentence for the December 2015 shooting of two city men, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said.

Speights, 23, Asbury Park, pleaded guilty in February before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley to killing Jamar Small and shooting Tyreek Small during the morning of Dec. 20, 2015.

Jamar Small had been a star football player for Asbury Park High School before he attended Texas Southern University on a football scholarship. He returned to the area to work as a drug counselor in Marlboro and serve as a mentor to boys in Asbury Park, according to app.com.

A screaming match between families of the victims and the defendant erupted in the hallway after Oxley imposed the prison term on Diquan Speights, also known as “Gudda,’’ the report states.

Jamar Small's sister, Teishe, 31, made an obscene gesture to Speights and yelled a profanity at him. A relative of Speights also used profanity and the conflict moved out into the hallwway.

"Let it go - God will take care of everything,'' Small's mother Lucy Small, yelled as sheriffs officers were clearing people from the hallway.

On Dec. 20, 2015, the 24-year-old and his older brother, Tyreek Small, were in a car backing out of a driveway on Summerfield Avenue in Asbury Park when gunfire erupted. Jamar Small was shot in the abdomen and died about three hours later at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. Tyreek Small, now 27, was shot in the back and survived.

Speights must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence for Jamar Small's death, before he is eligible for parole. Oxley also sentenced him to 10 years in prison for the aggravated assault of Tyreek Small and 18 months for the aggravated assault of Tieshe Small, the prosecutor said.

Oxley ordered the sentences to run concurrently. Speights must also serve five years of parole supervision after he is released from jail.

Speights admitted firing five shots into the car where both Jamar and Tyreek Small were seated. The investigation by Asbury Park police and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office revealed that just minutes before the shooting, Speights pointed a handgun at Tieshe Small and threatened her. It was the same handgun he later used to kill Jamar Small, Gramiccioni said.

Asbury Park police officers arrived on scene in front of 1039 Summerfield Avenue to find both Jamal Small and Tyreek Small suffering from gunshot wounds. Jamar was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune Township, where he later died as a result of the gunshot wounds, Gramiccioni said.

Image: Patch file photo.