Three Charged Following Grand Jury Investigation Into 2020 Murder

A newly unsealed Bucks County grand jury presentment has revealed three people have been charged in connection with the 2020 murder of Joshua McRae, 31, Trenton.

McRae’s body was found around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, January 19, 2020 on I-295 near the I-95 interchange in Bristol Township. He was found lying face down on the east berm of the highway. An autopsy revealed he died from five gunshot wounds to his torso and chest.

Since the body was located, Pennsylvania State Police and Bucks County Detectives have been probing the murder. Their investigation led to an investigative grand jury supervised by Court of Common Pleas Judge Raymond McHugh being called earlier this year at the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown Borough. The grand jury finished their work earlier this month.

With the three people alleged to have been connected to the killing now in custody, the grand jury presentment has been unsealed and made public.

As LevittownNow.com reported last week, Robert Shannon Christie, 36, of Trenton, has been charged with two counts of criminal homicide, possession of a firearm while prohibited, possession of an instrument of crime with intent, and single counts of first-degree murder, flight to avoid apprehension, tamper with or fabricate physical evidence, abuse of a corpse, and hinder apprehension or prosecution. Christie was arrested in Trenton last Thursday night and is awaiting extradition to Bucks County.

A witness testified before the grand jury that Christie shot and killed McRae in a vehicle on I-95 before the body was dumped along I-295.

The grand jury also heard testimony Christie, McRae, and others were at Murphy’s Beef and Ale on Bristol-Emilie Road in Bristol Township’s Levittown section leading up to the murder.

One witness told the grand jury that Christie and McRae, a father of children, bickered with one another at the bar over whether Christie really was a “gangster,” but McRae allegedly said he was “just messing.”

Christie, who went by the name “Perry Street Bob,” testified before the grand jury that he had never killed anyone and he was an inactive member of the Bloods street gang in New Jersey’s capital city. He also said McRae was a Blood and the two were friends but drifted apart when Christie served a 10-year prison sentence.

Christie said he traveled with his friends to Murphy’s Beer and Ale to have a night out and stay out of trouble in Trenton in the hours before the murder, according to the grand jury presentment.

Christie made numerous claims about McRae selling bad drugs and other accusations. The grand jury noted they did not find Christie’s testimony honest.

The investigation into the shooting death involved a search warrant execution, seizure of property and phones, a review of phone data and location pings, numerous clips of surveillance video, and intercepted communications, according to court papers.

A Pennsylvania State Police sergeant testified he reviewed video showing Christie leaving the bar in Bristol Township with another man and McRae in a Toyota Highlander SUV at 12:27 a.m. on the day of the murder. The SUV returned to Murphy’s Bar and Ale a short time later and left again.

State police investigators recovered more surveillance video from New Jersey that showed the Highlander in New Jersey after McRae’s body was located. The SUV entered an alleyway off South Cook Avenue in Trenton and was found burnt to the shell by city firefighters about 30 minutes later.

Communication records, according to court papers, show Christie and others who were at the bar communicating after the murder, but there were no communications to McRae, which authorities said implied the group knew McRae was dead.

State police, according to the grand jury present, obtained communications of Christie while he was in a New Jersey jail where he bragged about being a killer.

“I got 11 victims and four didn’t make it, and I never went to jail for none of it,” Christie allegedly claimed in the jailhouse recording.

A Bucks County Detective who is an expert in phone location data testified information from Christie’s cell phone showed him and others who were with him in the area where McRae’s body was located and also in the area where the SUV was found burned out later in the early morning.

Corbin, according to authorities, was not able to possess a firearm under state law, but he did have one. He also is accused of giving a firearm to Christie, who is also ineligible to possession in the Keystone State.

Taurien Jamar Corbin, 41, of Ewing, New Jersey, and E. Robinson, 32, of Trenton, were alleged to have been in the SUV around the time the body was dumped and when the SUV was burned in Trenton, according to authorities.

Corbin was preliminarily arraigned Sunday morning by on-call District Judge Frank Peranteau on charges of possession of a firearm while prohibited, sales to ineligible transferee, hindering apprehension or prosecution by concealing or destroying evidence, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. He was released on $500,000 unsecured bail.

Robinson was preliminarily arraigned before District Judge Kevin Wagner Monday on charges of tampering with physical evidence, hindering apprehension or prosecution by concealing or destroying evidence, and abuse of a corpse. He was released on $500,000 unsecured bail.

The investigation took state police to Middletown Township’s Highland Park neighborhood, but court papers do not mention that aspect of the investigation. Testimoney indicated the homicide occurred in Bristol Township.

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