
Teens charged with murder of NJ college student who was shot dead
Two teenagers have been arrested and charged with murder following the recent shooting death of a 20-year-old Manalapan native.
A 16-year-old male from Pennington and a 17-year-old male from Hopewell were taken into custody Friday afternoon.
They both faced charges of murder, felony murder, robbery and weapons offenses stemming from the killing of Philip Urban at a nature preserve last weekend.
On Dec. 17, police responded around 7 p.m. to the Hopewell Valley Nature Preserve off of Harbourton-Woodsville Road — where they found Urban's body "slumped over" in the driver's seat of a white Mercedes C300.
Investigators have found that the juveniles planned to rob Urban of a quarter-pound of marijuana for $800, according to Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri.
Urban was a freshman at Post University in Connecticut, where he had just started his first season on the basketball team there.
He was lured to the gravel entry of the preserve, according to the prosecutor, where he was robbed of the marijuana, then shot and killed.
Due to the defendants’ ages, any further identification is being withheld. They were being held at the Middlesex County Youth Detention Center, pending a detention hearing.
The case would be screened by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office to determine if a waiver to adult court would be sought.
Erin Vogt is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach her at erin.vogt@townsquaremedia.com
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