In the spring of 2016, 16-year-old Ciony Kirkman, a Black female from Trenton, New Jersey, was struck in the head when shots were fired into a minivan on Jersey Street that evening. She died of her injuries two days later, on April 26, 2016. Six other teenagers were in the vehicle at the time.

A few days after the shooting, 17-year-old Peter Charles Jr. was arrested at a relative’s home and charged with murder and six counts of assault. The case was transferred from juvenile to adult court; a 2017 grand jury returned a 16-count indictment that included first-degree murder. After an eight-day trial in 2018, a jury convicted Charles of murder, attempted murder, and aggravated assault, and in June 2019 he received a 55-year prison sentence.

In June 2023, a state appellate court overturned those convictions, finding trial errors including problems with a detective’s testimony and with the transfer to adult court, and ordered the process to begin again with a new waiver hearing in family court. Does anyone have additional information about Ciony’s life in Trenton or about witnesses present that evening?