By KEN SERRANO
STAFF WRITER
A man convicted of murdering two women in Piscataway, one the daughter of poet Amiri Baraka, has renewed his bid to have his conviction overturned.
Ibn El-Amin Pasha, also known as James Coleman, appeared in Superior Court, New Brunswick on Friday for a post-conviction relief hearing.
Among other arguments, the 41-year-old Pasha is contending that he should get a new trial because he was not tried separately on related domestic-violence charges, keeping him from testifying on those charges alone.
Judge Frederick DeVesa set a tentative hearing date of Dec. 13.
Pasha shot Shani Baraka, 31, and her companion, Rayshon Holmes, 30, following a series of violent incidents against Baraka's half-sister, Wanda Wilson, who is Pasha's former wife.
The bodies of the two women were found on Aug. 12, 2003, in Wilson's home by friends of Wilson who came to check on the house while she was vacationing. Prosecutors argued that Pasha killed Baraka, a girls' basketball coach at Malcolm X. Shabazz High School in Newark, because she was living at the house and had helped Wilson break off her relationship with Pasha. Holmes, of Irvington, was killed because she was a witness to the murder, prosecutors said. Two years ago, a state appeals court upheld Pasha's conviction and his 168-year prison sentence.
Among Pasha's arguments rejected then by the three-judge panel was that his sentence was "manifestly excessive."
Ken Serrano: 732-565-7212; kserrano@MyCentralJersey.com
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