2006 Media Releases:

CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
JAMES P. LYNCH, ACTING CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
MEDIA INFORMATION

April 4, 2006

1) A 21-year-old Camden man pleaded guilty today to Aggravated Manslaughter in the March 2004 fatal shooting of the owner/operator of a Chinese restaurant in Camden, N.J.

Tori Cobbs, formerly of South 27th Street, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12, 2006, by Superior Court Judge David G. Eynon. Cobbs admitted today that he participated in an armed robbery of the Happy Dragon restaurant on South 28th Street on March 11, 2004. Investigation indicated Cobbs acted as a lookout and driver for the robbery, during which Bao Xing Lin, M/53, was shot to death. The plea agreement calls for Cobbs to serve 15 years, including 85 percent before his first parole eligibility.

Co-defendant Brandon Smith, a.k.a. Bryant Smith, 21, of Camden pleaded guilty and was sentenced in August 2005 to a 25-year prison sentence.

2) A former church deacon pleaded guilty on Monday, April 3, 2006, to sexually assaulting five victims under age 13, including two he knew from the church.

Lawrence Johnson Jr., 30, formerly of Morton Street in Camden, is scheduled to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Samuel D. Natal after an evaluation at the state’s Adult Diagnostic & Treatment Center at Avenel. A plea agreement negotiated by Assistant Prosecutor Al Durney calls for Johnson to serve 14 years in prison, including 85 percent before his first parole eligibility. The defendant will also be required to comply with Megan’s Law restrictions following his release and will be subject to parole supervision for life.

Johnson had served as a deacon for approximately four years at New Mickle Baptist Church in Camden.

Investigation revealed that during a sleepover at the church on the night of Oct. 29, 2004, Johnson, a deacon for approximately four years, molested two boys between the ages of 10 and 12. After the sleepover, the boys reported the assault to their parents and the pastor of the church, in the 400 block of South 4th Street. An investigation by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Child Abuse Unit and the Camden Police Department led to the discovery of three additional victims, two females and a male, ages 2 to 10, that Johnson allegedly assaulted or attempted to assault on various dates between 1998 and 2004 in the Camden homes of Johnson’s relatives.

3) Derrick Wiles, 36, of North 19th Street in Camden, pleaded guilty on Monday, April 3, to Kidnapping and Aggravated Sexual Assault, admitting that he abducted a woman and a teenager at gunpoint, forced them into an abandoned house in Camden and forced them to perform sex acts on him.

A plea agreement negotiated by Assistant Prosecutor John T. Wynne calls for Wiles to serve 21 years, including 85 percent before his first parole eligibility. Sentencing is scheduled for June 16, 2006, before Superior Court Judge Robert G. Millenky.

Investigation revealed that Wiles broke into a house in the 3000 block of Congress Road in Camden, where the victims lived along with the teenager’s mother, at approximately 3 a.m. on Saturday, July 10, 2004. He admitted he threatened the two victims in an upstairs bedroom with a handgun and forced them to walk to an abandoned apartment in the 1000 block Sheridan Street. There, he sexually assaulted the victims, who were 29 and 15, before they escaped four days later and alerted police.

Acting Prosecutor Lynch commended the Assistant Prosecutors, police personnel and Victim-Witness counselors, who worked with the victims and their families, for their dedication and professionalism in dealing with these difficult and disturbing matters.