HOBOKEN — A 20-year-old Jersey City man was ordered held Tuesday pending presentation of murder charges to a grand jury in last month’s fatal shooting of a Hoboken teenager.
Khalif Geiger is charged with multiple counts of murder, robbery, and weapons offenses in the Jan. 24 shooting.
Geiger is one of three suspects in the death of 18-year-old Adrian Rivera in his family’s apartment at the Andrew Jackson Gardens public housing complex.
The one other suspect in custody is an unidentified juvenile, while authorities said the third suspect remained at large Tuesday morning.
Judge Paul DePascale granted a motion by the Hudson County Prosector’s Office to hold Geiger without bail at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny.
Assistant Prosecutor Leo Hernandez said the motion had cited the risk of flight and the risk to the community if Geiger were released, as well as the law’s presumption that homicide suspects should be held pending a grand jury presentation.
Geiger’s lawyer, Kevin Purvin, told the judge that his client was not the person who shot Rivera.
“I think, if anything, it was a robbery that went bad,” Purvin said, failing to move the judge.
Last week, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez named 18-year-old Keyshaun Wiggins of Jersey City as a third suspect in the shooting. A warrant was issued for Wiggins’ arrest on murder, armed robbery, burglary, and weapons offenses.
Geiger stood next to Purvin, dressed in green prison scrubs with his hands cuffed behind his back, and said nothing as DePascale ordered him held.
Geiger’s mother, who sat calmly at the back of the courtroom, also declined to comment.
Geiger’s last court appearance, on Feb. 2, was more emotional. Angered by the judge’s refusal to release him, Geiger shook his head and kicked open a partition door as sheriff’s officers led him out of the courtroom. As Geiger was being led out, Rivera’s father stood from his seat in the courtroom and shouted, “He killed my son!” then collapsed sobbing.
At Geiger’s initial court appearance last month, his mother told NJ Advance Media that her heart went out to Rivera’s family. But, she insisted, “My son didn’t kill anyone.”
Rivera’s killing in the wake of separate shooting at Jackson Gardens in which six juveniles were arrested heightened safety concerns among residents about drug activity, building doors being jammed open, and the presence violent youth from Jersey City at the sprawling public housing complex.
Seeking to reassure residents that Rivera’s killing was not an act of random violence, authorities said during a community meeting in Hoboken that he appeared to be the target of a botched robbery attempt, and that more than $13,000 in cash and three pounds of marijuana were found in the apartment.
Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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