SUSSEX COUNTY, New Jersey (WWNY) – Opening statements got underway Monday afternoon in the trial of two people charged with kidnapping and killing a Fort Drum soldier in 2020.
Army Spc. Jamaal Mellish and Hannan Aiken are on trial in Sussex County, New Jersey, in the shooting death of 20-year-old Cpl. Hayden Harris.
Both face charges of kidnapping and murder.
Mellish and Harris, who were both stationed at Fort Drum, exchanged vehicles. Harris reportedly traded his Mustang for Mellish’s Chevy Silverado pickup in July 2020. Harris wasn’t happy with the trade and wanted his Mustang back.
The two met up the following December to undo the deal, but Mellish had already sold the Mustang.
That’s when Mellish and Aiken – who is Mellish’s girlfriend’s brother – allegedly bound and gagged Harris and drove him nearly 300 miles to New Jersey, where he was shot and killed.
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