Barnegat man admits to shooting in Atlantic City, hiding gun in 2022

A 27-year-old Barnegat man has admitted that he shot someone in the leg in Atlantic City in 2022 and then hid the gun on a windowsill, authorities said.

Louis Stokes pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of second-degree aggravated assault, second-degree possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose and third-degree hindering apprehension, according to a statement from the Atlantic County prosecutor's office.

Under the plea deal heard before state Superior Court Judge Donna M. Taylor in Mays Landing, Stokes is expected to be sentenced in September to five years in state prison and will have to serve 85% of the term before being eligible for parole.

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Afterward, he will be subject to intensive parole supervision for three years, authorities said.

Shortly before midnight on Oct. 14, 2022, Atlantic City police responded to a call on Sewell Avenue and found a victim with non-life threatening injuries who had been shot once in the leg, authorities said.

Investigators found eight expended 9mm shell casings nearby in the area of Pennsylvania and Adriatic avenues. Surveillance video showed that a group of men had been in the area of the shooting before fleeing inside a home.

Stokes was arrested after he left the home, authorities said. Three handguns — including a stolen 9 mm handgun that a ballistics laboratory later determined was the weapon used to shoot the victim — were discovered after a search, according to the prosecutor's office.

"This handgun was found after it was hidden outside a second-floor window on an adjacent exterior windowsill," the prosecutor's office wrote in the statement. "Stokes’ DNA was present on two of the handguns and he was identified as the shooter by an eyewitness."

In court, Stokes admitted shooting the victim with the handgun and hiding it afterward to hinder his apprehension, authorities said.

Stokes is being held at the Atlantic County Justice Facility in Mays Landing. He is scheduled for sentencing in September.

David P. Willis: dwillis@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Barnegat man admits to shooting in Atlantic City, hiding gun in 2022