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A fugitive from New Jersey was arrested in Monroe after authorities said he shot a man to death on Easter Sunday during a welcome-home-from-prison party.
James Darren Samspon was arrested Friday at the Nottingham Apartments in northwest Monroe. He was in Mecklenburg jail with no bond for the murder charge. The arrest by U.S. Marshals and the Monroe Police Department came almost a month after the shooting death of Sergio Rivera.
According to U.S. Marshals, Sampson and Rivera were both at a party at a community center in Lawnside, N.J., celebrating “an individual's return home after being incarcerated.”
Sampson was collecting money at the door and got into a verbal argument with Rivera, said Dep. U.S. Marshal O.N. Hamilton.
Witnesses told investigators that as the argument grew heated, Sampson pulled a gun and started firing at Rivera, who ran away from the community center. It's unclear whether Rivera collapsed from a gunshot wound or tripped and fell outside the community center, but Marshals said Sampson caught up with him and fired several shots into Rivera's torso and head while Rivera was on the ground.
Rivera was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators in New Jersey learned that Sampson, who had gang ties, might be headed to the Charlotte area to hide out with some associates, Hamilton said. They forwarded their information to marshals in the Charlotte area who began trying to confirm whether Sampson was actually hiding in Monroe.
On Friday, marshals and Monroe police officers made the arrest.
“It's a very rewarding accomplishment,” Hamilton said. “It's really a rewarding feeling to know that someone who has hurt someone or killed someone is behind bars.”
