FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Caitlin Mota
PHONE: (201) 577-6699
EMAIL: cmota@hcpo.org
DATE: Friday, April 12, 2024
MAN ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH 2020 HOMICIDE
Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez has released the following information:
On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, members of the United States Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested a 35-year-old man in connection with the 2020 death of Crystal Ojeda in Bayonne.
Erick Acosta, of Bayonne, is charged with Murder in violation N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3A(1); Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4D; Unlawful Possession of a Weapon in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5D; and Tampering with Evidence in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:28-6(1). He was taken into custody at Newark Liberty International Airport and is being held at the Hudson County Correctional Facility pending his first court appearance.
Colombian authorities arrested Acosta on October 22, 2022, pursuant to a U.S. provisional arrest request. On April 10, 2024, Acosta was subsequently extradited from Colombia to the United States.
On October 9, 2020, shortly before 1 p.m., members of the Bayonne Police Department responded to 30 Lord Avenue to perform a welfare check of a resident. Upon arrival, responding officers found an unresponsive female victim with visible trauma. The victim, later identified as Crystal Ojeda, age 40, of Bayonne, was pronounced dead at approximately 1:55 p.m. The Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined the Cause of Death to be Blunt Force Trauma to the Head and Body and the Manner of Death to be Homicide.
Prosecutor Suarez credited the Homicide Unit, United States Marshals Service, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, with the investigation, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Judicial Attaché’s Office in Bogota, Colombia, who worked with Colombian authorities to secure the arrest and extradition of Acosta.
The above charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. R.P.C.3.6(b)(6).