2 Essex County Men Plead Guilty After NJIT Student Murdered

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — A pair of Essex County men have admitted to their roles in the 2016 murder of a Freehold resident and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) student, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Taquan Harris, 24, of Newark, and Nafee Cotman, 21, of Irvington, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in connection with the May 2016 robbery and murder of Joseph Micalizzi, 23, of Freehold, the Essex County Prosecutors Office stated.

Harris admitted to fatally shooting Micalizzi. Cotman admitted to participating in the robbery, prosecutors said.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Harris of Newark is expected to be sentenced to 26 years in New Jersey State Prison. Cotman, an Irvington resident, is expected to be sentenced to 12 years in prison. In both cases, the men will have to serve 85 percent of their respective sentences before they are eligible for parole, prosecutors said.

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 27.

In court on Wednesday, Harris and Cotman admitted entering the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and climbing the steps to the third-floor bedroom with a plan to rob the occupants, prosecutors said.

Harris admitted bringing a loaded revolver to the frat house and shooting Micalizzi three times. One of the shots was fatal, prosecutors stated.

Micalizzi's obituary, published on the Obit Tree website, said he graduated from Howell High School in 2011, where he had been enrolled in the Fine and Performing Arts Academy. Micalizzi also was a wrestler and a member of the National Honor Society. He attended Brookdale Community College before transferring to NJIT and had made the dean's list and had been inducted to the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

Photo: NBC 4 New York

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