Jamil Hubbard, 30, has been found guilty of running over and murdering a stranger for “being white.”
Jurors in Monmouth County convicted 30-year-old Jamil Hubbard of Sayreville of murder Friday for the May 2018 attack on 56-year-old EMT and freelance photographer, Jerry Wolkowitz.
According to court documents Jamil Hubbard saw the victim, Jerry Wolkowitz, walking along the street and decided to attack him because he was white. Jerry Wolkowitz was badly beaten, dragged into a parking lot then run over with a car and would spend five months in the hospital before passing away from his injuries. Hubbard told authorities he probably would have left Wolkowitz alone if he was black.
On Friday, Hubbard was convicted of first-degree Murder, first-degree Bias Intimidation, second-degree Eluding, third-degree Theft from the Person, third-degree Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose, and third-degree Motor Vehicle Theft.
Sentencing in the case has been scheduled for March 31, 2023. Hubbard is facing up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Defense attorneys argued that Hubbard suffered from serious mental illness, including bipolar disorder, that prevented him from knowing what he was doing or appreciating its wrongfulness, but jurors rejected their plea for an acquittal on insanity grounds.
The Asbury Park Press said Wolkowitz worked as photographer, EMT and ambulance supervisor, and his work often appeared in the Asbury Park Press.
One of the victim’s sisters, Judy Marcus, speaking for the family outside the courtroom, called the case “a living nightmare for almost five years for all of us.” She praised the work of investigators and prosecutors that she said “gave us the ability to go on and end the nightmare.’’
Marcus said the ordeal was particularly difficult because both of their parents were Holocaust survivors and, for two years, while her mother was still alive, the family couldn’t bear to tell her that her son had been murdered, the Asbury Park Press reported.
