Prosecutors: Girl, 17, used same gun in two Camden shootings

A Camden teenager fatally shot a 13-year-old boy as he walked away from a van in January, and used the same weapon - a .380 caliber Hi-point semi-automatic handgun - with which she had shot another person in October, prosecutors said Friday.

Casche Alford, 17, had been waived to adult court for her arraignment in Superior Court in Camden, where she appeared in black pants and a longsleeve polo sports jersey, with her wrists in handcuffs. Alford, charged with murder, has been in a juvenile detention facility since Jan. 9.

Authorities said she killed Nathaniel Plummer Jr. on Jan. 7 in the 2900 block of Line Street, near his grandmother's home. Judge John T. Kelley ordered that Alford be held on $1 million bail.

Alford is also charged with attempted murder in the Oct. 30, 2015, shooting of a 19-year-old man in East Camden. He survived.

Alford was mostly stoic in court, but cracked the knuckles in both her hands as Assistant Prosecutor Lauren Pratter described the night of Plummer's death.

Pratter said Alford and Plummer were at a Lukoil station on the Admiral Wilson Boulevard and left together in a van together just before 11 p.m. Plummer was shot upon exiting the vehicle in his East Camden neighborhood around 11:15 p.m., police said.

Plummer's mother, who was looking for her son and did not know he was shot, called Alford 30 minutes later. Alford said she had dropped off Plummer at his grandmother's house, authorities said.

Plummer was transported to Cooper University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Detectives later interviewed two individuals familiar with Alford. Both said Alford, 16 at the time, had admitted killing Plummer, Pratter said.

A friend had also messaged Plummer on Facebook the day of the shooting and said Alford was trying to "set him up," Pratter said.

"The likelihood of conviction is very strong in this case," Pratter said Friday.

Alford, she said, has a criminal record that includes charges of simple assault, harassment, and resisting arrest. Alford also violated probation four times.

Alford's attorney, Jordan Zeitz, said Alford has lived in Camden her whole life, and called the chances of her trying to flee if she made bail "remote."

"She has strong community ties here in the city of Camden," Zeitz said, pointing out her mother, who sat in the first row of the courtroom.

She declined to speak after the hearing.

In the hallway outside the courtroom, about a dozen of Plummer's family and friends gathered, including his mother, Taisha Mercado, and grandmother Darlene Adderly.

"He was a very loved child," Adderly said, trying to hold back tears.

Plummer attended Octavius V. Catto Community School and was Camden's youngest homicide victim in several years, and the first in 2016. Mayor Dana L. Redd and School Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard were among more than 450 people who attended his funeral at Tabernacle of Faith Church in January.

A federal judge also allowed Plummer's father, Nathaniel Sr., who is facing charges that he helped run a Camden drug ring, to attend the funeral.

mboren@phillynews.com

856-779-3829 @borenmc