JERSEY CITY -- The teen charged with gunning down a 25-year-old man outside the McGinley Square Dunkin Donuts in 2015 will be tried as an adult. 

Elijah Hilliard has been indicted on first-degree murder and weapons charges for the Aug. 4 shooting death of Kempton Cummings, the father of a young child who was engaged to marry his girlfriend. 

Cummings was shot once in the back near Bergen and Storms avenues just after midnight. He was pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center hours later, authorities said. 

Hilliard was not arrested in connection with the killing until May 2016, nine months after Cummings was killed. He was 17 at the time of his arrest, and his case was later moved from Hudson County Family Court to Superior Court. 

During his arraignment before Judge John Young on Monday morning, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Tom Zuppa said a plea deal has not been offered. 

Cummings family sat in the courtroom during the short hearing, which lasted less than five minutes, wearing shirts and sweatsuits with pictures of the 25-year-old ironed on the front. 

"He wanted no problems at all, he wanted the best for his family," Cummings' sister-in-law Cynthia Milton said after the hearing. "He was a go-getter." 

Milton, 17, said Cummings' 3-year-old son still cries looking for his father. She said it's "crazy" to see teenagers her age getting a hold of a weapon and committing violent crimes. 

"You would think a 17-year-old, an 18-year-old, would be in school doing sports or something, but no, he has a gun," she said. "Not only did he hurt my brother-in-law he could have hurt other people."

Hilliard is expected back in court on March 20 at 1:30 p.m. 

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.