The grinning gangbanger, Jamhmel Sanders, arrested for brutally killing two young victims before torching their bodies in a car was held without bail Thursday in an emotional Bronx court hearing filled with sobs for the dead.
Jahmel Sanders, 30, was returned to court one day after making a three-minute appearance on Wednesday and winking on his way out.
At Thursday’s hearing, a prosecutor demanded that Sanders be imprisoned for life if convicted of a variety of charges ranging from murder to kidnapping and arson.
“It was retaliation for a previous murder,” Bronx Assistant District Attorney Burim Namani said during the arraignment. “It’s a gang-related situation… The police had been looking for this defendant for months. They only discovered him two days ago.”
Two people were pronounced dead on scene after firefighters extinguished a Honda Accord engulfed in flames on Shore Rd. in the Bronx on May 16, 2022.(Photo: Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/TNS)
Sanders, who had pleaded not guilty, sat with his head down, quietly watching as his attorneys took notes.
Nikki Huang, 23, and her friend Jesse Parrilla, 22, were kidnapped shortly after 1 a.m. Both were killed before their bodies were left inside a burning car at the Pelham Split Rock Golf Course in the Bronx on May 16, 2022.
“(We’re) devastated, empty, heartbroken,” said a relative of the 22-year-old Parrilla, one of about a dozen sobbing victims’ family members present at the hearing. “Jesse was a fine young man. He’s never had a problem. We never got to say our final goodbyes.”
She described the victim as attractive, intelligent, passionate, and driven.
“We pray for justice because we don’t want another family to suffer the way we have,” she explained. “And we don’t want other children to become entangled in some disgusting mess as a result of evil people like them.”
During the hearing, Huang’s relatives covered their tears with their coats.
“They executed Jesse,” Namani said. “He had been shot in the head and chest. Nikki was executed.”
Cops were still looking for suspect Steven Santiago, 34, who is still on the run 10 months after an explosion of Lower East Side Gang violence killed three people and injured three more.
Jahmel Sanders is pictured in police custody Tuesday afternoon in the Bronx. (Photo: GREGG VIGLIOTTI/New York Daily News/TNS)
As Sanders was led back to lockup, four of his supporters exchanged quiet words in the courtroom. As he was led into the hearing, he smiled at them.
Sanders, who was apprehended on Tuesday to end a lengthy manhunt, was scheduled to appear in court on June 21.
Sanders’ first court appearance ended Wednesday as he awaited an attorney to represent him before the proceedings could continue, according to authorities.
Sanders was taken into custody at his girlfriend’s apartment on Tuesday after a brief struggle, according to police.
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