News-Record: Updates on Child Porn and Murder Arrests

A Maplewood man who was arrested on March 3, 2011 and charged with second-degree distribution and fourth-degree possession of child pornography will not see jail time or have to register as a Meghan's Law offender, according to the News-Record.

Kenneth Mashel, 56, of Buckingham Gardens Parkway, was ultimately indicted in September on three lesser offenses, including the two fourth-degree child endangerment charges to which he pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Thomas Moore on Nov. 18. Mashel must relinquish the two computers that authorities seized during the raid. He also must undergo psychological counseling. Read the full story here.

The News-Record also reports that the man arrested in the murder of Arthur S. Downey III on Henry Place in Maplewood on March 15, 2010 was linked to the crime by DNA evidence, according to an Essex County prosecutor. Prosecutor Peter Guarino, however, would not describe the nature of that evidence. The accused man, John T. Staten, Jr., of Newark, , along with theft and weapons offenses. Staten allegedly killed Downey by asphyxiation and blunt force trauma, then stole his Xbox, other personal items and his Chevrolet Train Blazer. Staten has pleaded not guilty. His next court date is Jan. 18.