Gang Member Gets Life For Murder Of Man Dumped In Bristol Twp.

A Trenton man was sentenced to life in prison for a 2020 murder that ended with a man’s lifeless body sitting along a highway in Bristol Township.

Robert Shannon Christie, 37, a Trenton gang member, was on sentenced Tuesday morning by Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman to life in prison and a second consecutive sentence of a year to 60 months behind bars.

In October, a jury found Christie guilty of first-degree murder, flight to avoid apprehension, hindering apprehension, possession of an instrument of crime, and abuse of a corpse.

Charges were filed against Christie in 2022 after an investigation by Pennsylvania State Police and Bucks County Detectives. A Bucks County Investigating Grand Jury also heard evidence and recommended the charges.

Christie was charged in connection to the killing of Joshua Mcrae, 31, of Trenton, whose body was found on I-295 near the Pennsylvania Turnpike 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.

The mother of two of Mcrae’s children delivered victim impact statements from herself and Mcrae’s two daughters. One daughter said the murder was a “nightmare that became reality.”

Struggling through tears, Mcrae’s sister expressed her anger and sorrow over the loss of her brother, who will no longer be present for his children.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Rees described Christie as a “man of violence who has made crime his business” in a press release issued by the district attorney’s office.

On January 19, 2020, Bucks County’s 9-1-1 center received a distress call around 1:39 a.m. reporting a body on I-295. Troopers arrived to find Mcrae deceased.

Evidence during the trial revealed that on the night of January 18, 2020, Mcrae, Christie, and two others visited Murphy’s Beef and Ale in Bristol Township.

“On the drive home, Mcrae, sitting behind Christie in an SUV, said something which Christie found irritating,” the district attorney’s office said.

Christie, who went by the name “Perry Street Bob,” later admitted to shooting Mcrae multiple times in the SUV after leaving the bar, investigators said.

The defendant testified at his trial that he then dragged the dying Mcrae out of the SUV and dumped his body along I-295 in Bristol Township.

Christie, who was represented at trail by defense attorney Peter Williams, claimed he acted in self-defense, a defense the jury rejected.

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.

Christie was a member of the Nine Trey Gangster group, authorities said.

Following the killing, the SUV used by Christie and others around the time of the death of Mcrae entered an alleyway off South Cook Avenue in Trenton. It was found burnt to the shell by city firefighters about 30 minutes later.

Taurien Jamar Corbin, 42, of Ewing, New Jersey, and Jerry E. Robinson, 34, of Trenton, were alleged to have been in the SUV around the time the body was dumped and leading up to the SUV being burned in Trenton, according to authorities.

Corbin is awaiting a March pre-trial conference and potential guilty plea 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 has been free on $500,000 unsecured bail.

Robinson is awaiting a March pre-trial conference and potential guilty plea on charges of tampering with physical evidence, hindering apprehension or prosecution by concealing or destroying evidence, and abuse of a corpse. He has been free on $500,000 unsecured bail.

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.

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