NEWARK, N.J. — A 66-year-old New York man has been convicted of conspiring to kill a 19-year-old who was shot four times outside his mother’s Nutley home last year, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Armando Villareal Mena, of Newburgh, New York, was found guilty Oct. 23 of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree attempted murder and second-degree aggravated assault, Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II announced. The jury deliberated for one day.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Mena and another man drove from Newburgh to Nutley on July 4, 2025. Surveillance video showed Mena smashing a window of a car belonging to the mother of Jahniel Perez in an effort to draw Perez outside, prosecutors said. The second man then fired 12 shots, striking Perez four times.
Perez’s mother drove him to a hospital in the damaged car, the office said.
Police arrested Mena three days later in Newburgh while he was driving the vehicle investigators linked to the shooting. He later told the prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force that he had been the driver, according to the office.
The gunman has not been identified, and the investigation remains open, authorities said.
Assistant Prosecutors Christopher Byrnes and Alexander Wukovits tried the case before Superior Court Judge Joseph N. Minish.
“We thank the jury for their time and careful deliberation during this trial in reaching this verdict,” Byrnes said.
“We are thankful to have secured justice for Jahniel Perez and his family,” Wukovits said.
Mena is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18 and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office tips line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC (1-877-847-7432). Calls are confidential, the office said.
This report is based on information from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Source: Essex County Prosecutor’s Office press release
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