A man viciously beaten with a baseball bat on a Jersey City sidewalk over two years ago has died, and his attacker might face a murder charge.
Hayer Abdi, from Jersey City, was near Ocean and Fulton avenues on October 18, 2021, when James Robinson, also known as “Banks,” struck him in the head with an aluminum bat from behind, according to the criminal complaint.
The 32-year-old Abdi, who sustained serious and permanent injuries, passed away on May 16, three weeks ago.
Robinson was arrested on multiple drug offenses two weeks after the assault. The attack on Abdi was caught on surveillance camera, according to the criminal complaint. Robinson pleaded guilty to second-degree aggravated assault and is serving an 8-year sentence in state prison, subject to the No Early Release Act.
The 27-year-old Robinson was initially charged with attempted murder and could face homicide charges if the autopsy report from the state regional Medical Examiner’s Office shows that Abdi’s death resulted from the injuries suffered in the October 2021 assault.
“The matter is being reviewed by the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit,” said a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office on Friday.
Court records show Robinson had multiple drug convictions before the attack on Abdi. In 2018, he “escaped” a halfway house in Newark slightly more than a year into a three-year sentence for drug offenses.
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