Orange Man Sentenced to 55 Years for Murder of Ex-Girlfriend in Montclair

What happened

An Orange man has been sentenced to 55 years in state prison for stalking and killing his former girlfriend, a 20-year-old Kean University student, in Montclair in 2018. Ahigjah Broomes, 29, was convicted earlier this year of murdering Akirah Townes after she ended their relationship, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

An Orange man has been sentenced to 55 years in state prison for stalking and killing his former girlfriend, a 20-year-old Kean University student, in Montclair in 2018.

Ahigjah Broomes, 29, was convicted earlier this year of murdering Akirah Townes after she ended their relationship, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Prosecutors said Townes had broken up with Broomes about four months before the killing.

In the early morning hours of April 27, 2018, Townes was on Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair with a group of friends preparing to leave for a trip to Virginia Beach.

Authorities said Broomes approached her armed with a knife and stabbed her multiple times.

Townes tried to get away while her friends attempted to intervene, prosecutors said. Broomes fled the scene.

Townes was rushed to St. Joseph’s Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

A jury convicted Broomes on March 23, 2026, of first-degree murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon.

He has now been sentenced to 55 years in New Jersey State Prison.

Under New Jersey’s No Early Release Act, Broomes must serve 85% of the sentence before he becomes eligible for parole.

Following the sentencing, prosecutors remembered Townes as a young college student whose life was taken far too soon and said the case was an example of the devastating consequences of domestic violence.

Townes was just 20 years old.