Trials
A Passaic County jury convicted Jefersson Gonzalez and Elvis DeJesus of murder in the 2021 shooting of Jasmin Wel.
Patch and News 12 New Jersey reported that a jury on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, found Jefersson Gonzalez, 25, and Elvis DeJesus, 29, both of Paterson, guilty of first-degree murder and related gun and evidence counts. Jasmin Wel, 25, was shot in her car outside her home on East 24th Street on Dec. 2, 2021. Sentencing is set for Jan. 4.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
The first man police arrested in this killing was later acquitted. Patch reported Kristian Gonzalez of Lyndhurst was charged in 2022 and cleared of every count, and that investigators then built the case against Jefersson Gonzalez and Elvis DeJesus. An acquittal closes one charging theory. It does not decide the next one. This jury sat through what NorthJersey.com described as a month-long trial and three days of deliberations, and it convicted both men. The prison terms are still ahead.
Patch reported Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, that a Passaic County jury on Tuesday found Jefersson Gonzalez, 25, and Elvis DeJesus, 29, both of Paterson, guilty of first-degree murder. News 12 New Jersey reported prosecutors said the two shot Jasmin Wel while she was sitting in her vehicle on East 24th Street in Paterson. Patch reported Wel, 25, of Paterson, was shot to death in her car outside her home on the evening of Dec. 2, 2021. NorthJersey.com reported the convictions came after a month-long trial and three days of deliberations. A guilty verdict is the jury's finding on the counts it was given. The court has not sentenced either man.
Patch reported the jury also found both men guilty of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, and tampering with evidence. News 12 New Jersey and Patch reported sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 4. Neither outlet gave a year with that date. Those four counts are what the jury decided. They are not the sentence.
Patch reported that in 2022, after an investigation, Kristian Gonzalez of Lyndhurst was arrested for Wel's murder and was later acquitted of all charges. Patch reported that further investigation then showed Jefersson Gonzalez and DeJesus had been behind the shooting. Kristian Gonzalez is a different defendant. His acquittal is a finished result in his case. It is not a finding about the two men convicted Tuesday. News 12 New Jersey's story on this verdict did not discuss him.
What a judge does with Tuesday's verdicts on Jan. 4 is a separate proceeding. The murder count and the three related counts are the jury's finding, as Patch listed them. They are not yet a prison term. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and on Tuesday a jury found the state had met that burden on the counts against Gonzalez and DeJesus.
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