The documents were filed in connection with a motion to admit Ali Muhammad Brown's statement to investigators as evidence.
NEWARK -- In a journal seized during his July 18, 2014 arrest in Brendan Tevlin's slaying, prosecutors say, Ali Muhammad Brown wrote he was looking for affluent victims to fund his terrorist ambitions.
"Save all monies for hijra," one page said, using an Islamic term for emigration to Muslim countries that has come to be associated with foreign fighters joining the Islamic State, a terrorist organization also known as ISIS. "No wasting time or money."
"Find luxury apartments surrounded by forest," other pages said. "Make sure to take everything including watches, rings, necklaces, jewelry, cash, etc."
The alleged plans recorded in the journal are among new details of Brown's arrest contained in court documents filed in connection with a pending motion by prosecutors. The Essex County Prosecutor's Office is seeking to admit his past statements as evidence at his upcoming trial. The briefs were released to NJ Advance Media on Friday by the court presiding over his murder and terrorism case.
Authorities said Tevlin, 19, of Livingston, was shot multiple times shortly before midnight on June 25, 2014, after he stopped the Jeep Liberty he was driving at a traffic light at Walker Road and Northfield Avenue in West Orange. Tevlin's body was later found inside the SUV, which had been abandoned at a nearby apartment building.
Brown, 32, of Seattle -- a convicted felon who was on a federal watchlist at the time of Tevlin's killing -- is the first person to be charged with terrorism under state law in connection with a homicide. In addition to the terrorism and murder charges, he is also accused of robbery, carjacking and weapons offenses in Tevlin's killing.
In previous court appearances, Assistant Prosecutor Jamel Semper said the journal, which speaks of learning "proper ways of jihadi training," contained explicit references to the Islamic State.
Investigators have said Brown -- who is also charged with an armed robbery in Point Pleasant Beach and three homicides in Washington state -- confessed to his involvement in the killings, calling Tevlin's June 25, 2014 slaying an act of vengeance for lives lost in the Middle East.
Four days after the killing, Semper wrote in his brief, crime scene experts from the prosecutor's office had recovered video footage from a McDonald's a half mile from the intersection, depicting Brown alone in the restaurant less than two hours prior to Tevlin's shooting.
After West Orange police arrested him at a makeshift campsite in the township -- where investigators also found the murder weapon, a camouflage jacket, zip-ties and a copy of the Quran, among other items -- Brown, who identified himself as "Muhammad Ali Abdullah Allah," signed a form acknowledging he understood his Miranda writes, Semper wrote.
In his brief opposing the motion, Brown's attorney, Albert Kapin, argued investigators from New Jersey and Washington state proceeded to question Brown three additional times following his initial interview, after Brown had already asked for a lawyer and Kapin had requested the prosecutor's office keep law enforcement officials from his client.
In interviews, Kapin wrote, Brown talked about his "belief in jihad, his possible use of the same weapon from the Seattle shootings and the repeated references to the commission of terrorist acts in support of Islam."
Semper has argued two of the four interviews conducted with Brown -- which the defense maintains are "fruit of the poisonous tree" and should be excluded -- were both voluntarily given after Brown had waived his rights. Brown requested to meet with investigators for one of the statements, the prosecutor wrote.
Superior Court Judge Ronald D. Wigler is expected to hear oral arguments on the motion Nov. 9, according to the prosecutor's office. The case is scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 22, 2018.
Tevlin family perseveres 3 years after killing
Tevlin, a graduate of Seton Hall Preparatory School, had just finished his freshman year at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and was returning home from a friend's house at the time of his death. As authorities launched a manhunt for his killer, more than 3,500 people attended his wake in West Orange.
In addition to Tevlin's slaying, Brown faces aggravated murder charges in Washington state in connection with the fatal shootings of Leroy Henderson, 30, Ahmed Said, 27, and Dwone Anderson-Young, 23, all of whom were killed prior to Tevlin.
The Seattle Times reported in December that prosecutors had decided not to pursue the death penalty in those cases.
Investigators said shell casings found at the scenes of the Washington killings and Tevlin's matched the 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun recovered during his arrest. The weapon had been stolen from Brown's wife, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Washington. A loaded magazine for the gun was found at the scene of the robbery in Point Pleasant Beach with which Brown is also charged, authorities said.
Brown has a 2005 federal conviction for bank fraud in Washington state, stemming from an investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported resulted in the arrests of 14 mostly Muslim men throughout the city.
Of the motives for the fraud scheme, Brown's co-defendants told government cooperators "you can't go to war broke" and that the funds were needed for "the cause," court records state.
The Associated Press reported Brown was on a federal watchlist at the time of the killings. He also has a conviction for "communicating with a minor for immoral purposes," for which he was required to register as a sex offender.
Despite what Kapin has argued is erractic and unresponsive behavior by his client, Wigler in July found Brown fit to stand trial in Tevlin's death, ruling he was likely feigning mental illness.
Records show Brown is currently incarcerated at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where he is serving a 36-year sentence for another armed robbery in West Orange on July 10, 2014. He refused to attend his own trial in that case.
Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.