Dover man charged with using gun to threaten woman

A Dover resident who was the recent subject of a court debate on defendants’ use of payment plans to post bail has been newly charged with pointing a loaded handgun at a girlfriend and threatening to kill her.

Hilario Trejo-Sosa, 22, appeared Wednesday for a bail review via a closed-circuit television connection between the Morris County jail and the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Stuart Minkowitz in Morristown.

Trejo-Sosa was charged Saturday by Dover police with terroristic threats, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, aggravated assault and violation of a temporary restraining order. He was lodged in the county jail on $75,000 bail, which was maintained Wednesday by the judge at the urging of Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Jenna Gouck.

Criminal complaints allege that Trejo-Sosa told a woman in Dover “I will kill you” while pointing a loaded handgun in her direction. He also allegedly texted the woman while she has a domestic violence temporary restraining order against him.

Addressing the judge, Trejo-Sosa said he wants to get a restraining order himself against the woman but was told by police he could not. The judge said he has the right to apply for restraints against the woman if he desires.

Gouck asked the judge to maintain bail at $75,000, noting that Trejo-Sosa has eight arrests and has a pending drug case. The judge noted that Trejo-Sosa was out on bail on that case when re-arrested last week. If convicted of both offenses, including the one committed while he was out on bail, he faces consecutive sentences, Minkowitz said.

Trejo-Sosa was the subject this past June of a court hearing on the propriety of high-risk defendants being allowed to post bail through payment plans with bondsmen instead of being required to pay at least 10 percent upfront to bond companies. An assistant prosecutor had argued that payment plans “subverted” the intent and purpose of bail.

In the pending case, Trejo-Sosa has been indicted by a Morris County grand jury on drug charges that include distribution of Ecstasy in Roxbury on Aug. 2, 2013. He failed to appear for arraignment on the indictment so bail was set at $100,000 when he was picked up, and a “bail-source” hearing was required, meaning the state wanted proof any funds used for bail were legitimately earned or possessed.

Questions about the propriety of payment plans for bail wound up not being pursued in Trejo-Sosa’s case because there were no laws barring bail payment bails and the Prosecutor’s Office was satisfied that two women on Trejo-Sosa’s behalf went to Octavia Bail Bonds in Newark and made financial arrangements to pay his bail over time on the drug case.

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com