The jilted ex-boyfriend of a Lengthy Island coed who was left partially blind in a 2021 acid assault was busted Tuesday for masterminding the cowardly scheme — as prosecutors mentioned he employed the wannabe rapper who allegedly carried out the crime.
Shaquille Coke, 31, allegedly employed 29-year-old Terrell Campbell to throw acid within the face of Nafiah Ikram as she stood in her Elmont driveway after getting back from work at CVS in March 2021 — as a part of a demented revenge plot as a result of she dumped him a month earlier, prosecutors mentioned.
The cup was full of 70% sulfuric acid, which melted her contact lenses and left second- and third-degree burns on her face, arms and chest, leaving the sufferer scarred and blind in a single eye.
“Ikram dumped Coke a month earlier and he couldn’t cope with it,” Nassau Assistant District Legal professional Brian Rodriguez mentioned in courtroom as Coke was arraigned for orchestrating the stunning assault.
“What we now know is that it was this defendant sitting within the driver’s seat of that automobile, ready for his confederate to return after finishing up this defendant’s twisted model of revenge.”
He mentioned it was “as a result of Nafia Ingram didn’t give him the reward and a focus he believed he deserved.”
The sufferer, who had been a Hofstra pre-med scholar on the time of the assault, informed The Submit that she thought to herself, “God please, I’m 21 years previous. This isn’t how I wish to die.”
Exterior the courtroom Tuesday, the now 26-year-old Ikram informed reporters she was nonetheless attempting to make sense of it.
“It’s lots proper now,” she mentioned. “It’s a giant shock and proper now, I’m attempting to simply decompress and determine how I’m feeling emotionally in order that’s all I can say proper now however I’m completely satisfied that at the present time has come.”
The case remained unsolved till February, when Campbell, a 29-year-old wannabe rapper who calls himself “Yung Primarily based Prince,” was charged within the assault.
Nassau County District Legal professional Anne Donnelly mentioned investigators later linked Coke to the crime.
“The defendant, disgustingly and cruelly, referred to as Nafia ‘Freddy Krueger,’” Donnelly mentioned, referring to the disfigured fictional villain within the “Nightmare on Elm Road” film franchise.
“Coke admitted that he informed Campbell he wished one thing — and I quote — ‘devastating’ to occur to Nafia,” she mentioned. “That karma would maintain it. Now, I don’t know if I consider in karma. However I consider in justice and justice has come knocking for Mr. Coke.
“This was a younger girl mere steps away from security,” she added. “A number of yards separated her from an atypical evening, and an ambush that robbed her of the everyday life a 21-year-old girl ought to have.”
The Brooklyn resident popped up on the police radar after posting a music video titled “Obsidian” on YouTube, which appeared to explain the assault on Ikram.
“On the road within the evening like a hitman murderer, attempt to run up, have your face burning in acid,” he raps within the clip, which was posted two years after the assault.
Following the incident, Campbell allegedly looked for “sulfuric acid remover” on his cellphone, which prosecutors mentioned was to determine easy methods to clear up spilled acid in his automobile.
Coke, who’s from Brooklyn, attended Nazareth Regional Excessive Faculty, a Catholic college within the borough, and went on to graduate from Hofstra College in 2017, in response to his Fb profile.
In courtroom, he was animated earlier than the decide, fidgeting a repeatedly mouthing the phrase “no” as prosecutors detailed the costs in opposition to him.
Protection legal professional Kenneth Montgomery referred to as the case in opposition to his consumer, who’s about to graduate from nursing college, “circumstantial,” and mentioned Campbell was a “self-interested” witness within the case.
Coke pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of first-degree assault, felony possession of a weapon and unlawfully possessing noxious supplies.
He was ordered held with out bail at his arraignment Tuesday.
