Ali Muhammad Brown was found guilty Tuesday, authorities said.
NEWARK -- Ali Muhammad Brown, who is facing murder and terrorism charges in the shooting death of Livingston teen Brendan Tevlin, was convicted Tuesday in connection with an unrelated armed robbery, officials announced.
Brown, 30, was found guilty of robbery and various weapons charges for his role in a July 10, 2014 robbery in West Orange, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray announced Tuesday. The state plans to seek the maximum penalty of 20 years when Brown is sentenced on Jan. 20, Murray said.
According to Assistant Prosecutor Jamel Semper, who tried the case, Brown emerged from a makeshift campsite he built in the woods in West Orange with a 9mm handgun at about 6 a.m. that July day.
Brown robbed a victim in a Mount Pleasant Ave. apartment building parking lot, Murray said. He threatened the victim with the gun, forced him into the trunk of a car, and made off with a driver's license, credit cards, an iPhone, a tablet, and other personal items, officials said.
Authorities said Brown used the credit cards to make several purchases before police found him in the campsite on July 18.
"The defendant's criminality in this case was a clear and present danger to the community," Semper said in a statement.
Semper also commended the Prosecutor's Office and Sgt. Dennis McCole and Officer Raymond Rosania of the West Orange Police Department for their work on the case.
Brown is also awaiting a trial date in connection with the June 25, 2014 Tevlin murder. According to authorities, the teenage college student was shot multiple times while at a stop light on the way home from a friend's house. Brown, who told authorities Tevlin's murder was an act of vengeance for lives lost in the Middle East, was indicted in July.
It marks the first time a terrorism charge has been levied in a murder case in New Jersey.
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.