A Trenton man was sentenced to 65 years in state prison after ambushing and killing a man at an annual neighborhood party in 2021, ending a four-year probe into the shooting that shocked the Stuyvesant Avenue community.
Matthew Tanner, 40, was found guilty of first-degree murder and multiple weapons counts in April and sentenced on Wednesday by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Darlene J. Pereksta. Prosecutors said Tanner must complete 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
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The shooting took place in the early hours of August 1, 2021, at “Sha-Day,” an annual party held in memory of a local resident who died in 2013. As the party lasted until midnight on the 800 block of Stuyvesant Avenue, police responded to a ShotSpotter warning that indicated 13 gunshots. They arrived to find Daquan Basnight, 28, lying in the roadway with multiple gunshot wounds to his face and body. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
Investigators from the Mercer County Homicide Task Force and Trenton Police discovered 13 shot casings near Basnight’s body and obtained surveillance footage from a nearby business. The footage shows a lone gunman ambushing the victim from a shortcut between two residences before fleeing along Craft Alley.
Tanner, dressed in a black t-shirt, black jeans, a light strip of fabric on his back, and white reflective sneakers, was identified by cops from film taken just minutes before and after the shooting. Authorities later interviewed him, still wearing the same outfit from the surveillance video.
Prosecutors said Tanner left the party earlier that night, changed clothes at a home on Hoffman Avenue, and returned just minutes before the shooting. He was spotted on film near the victim prior to and soon following the incident. Assistant Prosecutors Michael Mennuti and Matthew Samel said at trial that Tanner deliberately hunted down and ambushed Basnight as he was leaving the gathering.
Tanner was found guilty on all counts, including murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and being a person prohibited from possessing a firearm owing to a previous conviction.
He was represented by counsel from the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. No motive was revealed throughout the trial.
