A Malaga man has been sentenced to more than 60 years in prison for the murder of a youth football coach.
Eugene Cosby, 48, was one of three men to receive long prison terms for the fatal shooting of Joseph Jones during a youth football practice in Millville in August 2018.
Jones, a 37-year-old Millville man, was shot 10 times in a parking lot at Lakeside Middle School. Children were playing football on a nearby field when the shooting occurred, according to the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office.
Cosby and two co-defendants — 33-year-old Clifton Bailey of Camden and 28-year-old Will El-Bey of Vineland — also recruited false witnesses to interfere with an investigation, the office said on Friday, Jan. 11.
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In addition, the prosecutor’s office alleged that a police officer came under fire during a pursuit on Route 55 after the murder.
Superior Court Judge Cristen D’Arrigo sentenced Cosby to life in prison for murder, with a minimum term of just under 64 years, the prosecution said. He received a consecutive term for witness tampering of five years, with parole eligibility after 2½ years.
Bailey received a 60-year term for murder, with a 51-year bar on parole eligibility. He also faces a consecutive five-year term for interfering with an investigation, with no parole eligibility for 2½ years.
El-Bey received a 40-year term for murder and an additional eight years for bribing a witness. He must serve 31 years on the murder charge before parole eligibility, the prosecutor’s office said.
Cosby and El-Bey were arrested in October 2018. Bailey was arrested in November 2018.
A state jury convicted the trio in October 2024 of murder and other crimes.
Three other defendants previously pleaded guilty to trying to thwart investigators, the prosecutor’s office said.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Eugene Cosby, Clifton Bailey and Will El-Bey sentenced for NJ murder