Life sentence for man who executed councilwoman outside her suburban NJ home

NEW BRUNSWICK — A 31-year-old man will rot in prison after being convicted in the execution-style murder of a Sayreville councilwoman two years ago.

The life sentence was handed down Monday by Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone, sitting in Middlesex County. Rashid Ali Bynum, 31, will have to serve more than 35 years before being eligible for parole.

Bynum was arrested months after Eunice Dwumfour, 30, was gunned down before she got out of her SUV in the Parlin section.

The February 2023 slaying of the easygoing, church-attending public servant rocked the community. The Republican had made history by being the first black woman elected to the borough's governing body.

"One of the things that everyone remarks about Eunice is that she was a very vivacious personality," her mourning family's attorney, John Wisniewski, said in June.

"Somebody who always had an optimism about her that was infectious, that she never, as anyone could recall, had a negative word to say about anyone or anything," he said.

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Bynum and Dwumour had met several years earlier through Dwumfour's church, Champions Royal Assembly, prosecutors said.

After less than two days of deliberation in June, a Middlesex County jury found Bynum guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree counts of unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

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