Alleged Trenton gang members charged in 2020 murder of man found on I-295 in Bristol Township

Two men associated with a Trenton street gang are facing charges with assisting a third man accused in the 2020 murder of a 36-year-old Trenton man who was found shot to death on the shoulder of a Bristol Township highway.

The 33-page Bucks County Grand Jury presentment unsealed Tuesday, provided new details into hours before Joshua McRae was shot five times and dumped along I-295 in Bristol Township near a Pennsylvania Turnpike ramp.

McRae and the defendants were described as friends and either associates or members of the Nine Trey Bloods, who came to Bucks County the night of Jan. 19, 2020 to party, according to the grand jury, which was convened in January.

The unsealing of the indictment followed the filing of an arrest warrant last week charging Trenton resident Robert Shannon Christie, 36, with first-degree murder and related charges in the death of McRae, who is described as a friend and fellow Bloods gang member. Christie is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania for arraignment.

Two other alleged Blood "associates" —Jerry Robinson, 32, and Taurien Corbin, 41,— both of Trenton, were arraigned Sunday and Monday on charges of tampering with evidence, abuse of corpse, and hindering apprehension. Corbin faces additional charges of illegally possessing a firearm, illegal transfer of a firearm.

Both men were free on $500,000 unsecured bail, meaning they did not have to post money.

Authorities said shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2020, when passing drivers called 911 to report seeing a body, later identified as McRae, on the highway.

Pennsylvania State Police, who handled the investigation, interviewed witnesses who placed McRae and the suspects together at a bar on Bristol Emilie Road in Bristol Township the night before he was killed.

Additional video showed the vehicle they were in traveling to various New Jersey locations including Cunningham Alley in Trenton shortly before 2:30 a.m. where it was set on fire and three people were seen leaving the alley.

About a half-hour later, Trenton firefighters found the vehicle burned to its shell, according to the presentment.

Cellphone and social media records showed Robinson, Corbin and Christie were in communication with McRae in the hours before he was found dead, and the three defendants continued communicating with each other after McRae was dead, according to authorities.

Police interviewed the three suspects who each had slightly different accounts of the hours before the murder, according to the presentment.  They all denied involvement in the murder and claimed they found out about it afterward on social media.

Christie admitted to police that he was a member of the Nine Trey Gangsters in Trenton but denied killing anyone. He claimed he and McRae were friends since 2004, when McRae joined the Bloods. The friendship drifted apart, though, during a 10-year prison sentence Christie served, he testified

Christie claimed the night before McRae was murdered was the first time he had seen him since he was released from prison in 2017.  He also testified that the men left the bar, and went to another bar in Bucks County before heading back to Trenton.

Christie testified that McRae had been involved in two disputes with the mother of one of Robinson’s children and an incident where someone claimed he sold him fake drugs, or possibly passed counterfeit money.

Christie allegedly shot McRae inside the Highlander and removed his body and left it on the side of the highway, according to a witness.  He then drove the SUV to Trenton and set the vehicle on fire and left with Jerry Robinson and Corbin.

Robinson and Corbin then took the handgun and McRae’s cellphone, according to the witness.  The phone was disposed of in Trenton and Corbin disposed of the gun in New York, according to the witness.

The grand jury also heard excerpts from intercepted phone calls including one from a New Jersey jail where Christie bragged about being the killer, according to the presentment.  In another recorded call he claimed he never leaves his house without his gun.

“They’re not good at what they do when it comes to dealing with criminals,” Christie said in another intercepted recording. “And we, we, are the real con men.”

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Two more Trenton men arrested in 2020 murder in Bristol Township