The Alto Rango Lounge doesn’t look like much on the outside, and must be bigger on the inside than you’d think. Situated on 12th Ave., in the Wrigley Park area of Paterson, NJ, it’s tucked in between an autobody shop and a two-story, multifamily dwelling with bars on its windows (save for a little space to fit an air conditioner).
Technically, the Alto Rango is more than a lounge. Per its sign, it’s also a liquor store and bar. Despite its modest outward appearance, it sometimes hosts live music or DJs. That makes it a popular local spot. Too popular, on occasion. That has caused problems. Large crowds sometimes loiter outside the business, reportedly hundreds of people at times. Its license has been suspended multiple times; for selling alcohol to an underage patron, or selling hard liquor too late, or having untaxed cigarettes and drug paraphernalia on premises. Maybe those things are partly why it is so popular.
It’s also where Issac “Blaze” Tucker spent the last little bit of his life. In the early morning hours of February 23, 2015, as Blaze wandered home from the Alto Rango, he was shot and killed. ShotSpotter detected the gunfire and notified police, who responded. There were no other witnesses (if one doesn’t count the killer, who was gone from the scene when police arrived).
Police found Blaze, dead. A liquor bottle lay nearby. Remember, the Alto Rango is also a liquor store and though it isn’t supposed to sell package liquor after 10:00 p.m., it might just.
Police collected surveillance video of Blaze walking along with another person, but the quality of the video was poor. Based on testimony from a friend of Blaze, though, police identified Charles Grant III as the person seen on video walking with Blaze. Grant supposedly confessed to this friend a few days later that he had killed Blaze.
In 2018, Grant was convicted by a jury of murdering Blaze. He was sentenced to life in prison. But the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division reversed the conviction. Problems with video that was admitted at trial; not the surveillance video but a clip from an interrogation. In it, the interviewing police officer made statements that should not have been revealed to the jury. Unfortunately, the court failed to give the jury a limiting instruction not to consider those statements. That, and the prosecutor’s improper statements at closing, got Grant a new trial.
Grant was tried a second time. This time, however, the friend who testified Grant admitted killing Blaze got cold feet. “I don’t feel safe enough to speak about it, sir.” Nonetheless, Grant was again convicted of murdering Blaze.
And again, the appellate court reversed the conviction. In an opinion last month, it found the trial court did not carefully enough follow its admonition the first time. The video was redacted, but not enough, and the prosecutor (an apparent movie buff) again fumbled closing.
So: a third trial.
You can read the opinion here: https://lnkd.in/g2saSkas.