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A New Jersey jury convicted Rashid Ali Bynum of murder on Monday in the gunning down of a Republican councilwoman earlier this year.
The victim, Eunice Dwumfour, was serving as the first Black member of the Sayreville city council. Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone has set Bynum’s sentencing date for Aug. 18. He faces 30 years to life in prison.
Bynum was a member of Dwumfour’s congregation years ago, according to Christian Onuoha, who was Dwumfour’s colleague on the borough council and also a member of her church.
“She was his pastor around 2018,” he told Fox News Digital. “That was the last time any of us remember seeing him.”
EUNICE DWUMFOUR MURDER: NEW JERSEY POLICE ARREST MAN MONTHS AFTER SLAYING OF REPUBLICAN COUNCILWOMAN
Bynum has a lengthy rap sheet, including allegations of fraud, forgery and theft stretching back to 2013, the records reveal. He faced firearms charges in Virginia in 2015 and again in Maryland in 2019.
In the 2015 case, he pleaded guilty to illegally carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor, and received a sentence of three years’ probation, court records show.
Dwumfour’s husband, Peter Akwue, also known as Eze Kings and a pastor in the church but based in Africa, told Fox News Digital last month that he did not know Bynum.
NJ COUNCILWOMAN SHOOTING 911 CALLS REVEAL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF MALE SUSPECT WEARING BLACK, FLEEING ON FOOT
The 30-year-old Dwumfour was a former EMT, an IT consultant and active in her local church as well as in nonprofit groups and was on the Sayreville Borough Council’s Human Relations Commission, serving at-risk communities.
She won an upset election as a new candidate in November 2021 over the incumbent Democrat.
LISTEN: 911 emergency calls from the murder of New Jersey Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour
Police found her riddled with gunshot wounds in her white Nissan SUV around 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2023.
Bynum was originally arrested in late May in his home in Chesapeake City, Virginia. He was then transferred to New Jersey.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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