A federal grand jury investigating last month's murder and bank robbery at the Deptford Mall has indicted Moses Clary, the Camden suspect who was captured 10 days ago in New York City.
Clary, 21, is scheduled to appear Monday at a hearing in federal court in New York that will determine if he is to be returned to South Jersey to face trial for the shooting, which left three people dead.
At that hearing, federal authorities said, they are required only to prove they have the right man.
The filing of federal charges yesterday by the grand jury in Camden eliminates the need for extradition proceedings, officials said, since the suspect now would simply be moved to another jurisdiction in the federal system, instead of from one state to another.
An extradition hearing originally scheduled for yesterday was postponed.
The indictment also guarantees that Clary will be tried in federal court rather than in Superior Court in Gloucester County, where the robbery of an armored-car guard went haywire at a crowded shopping mall. Two shoppers and one of the alleged robbers died in the ensuing gunfire.
Authorities who asked not to be identified said Clary probably will be tried in Camden federal court since it is closer to the scene of the crimes than the federal courthouses in Trenton or Newark.
Those same authorities said veteran Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez was next on the list to be assigned a death-penalty case.
The indictment yesterday charged Clary, who lived in the 2800 block of Federal Street, with the following crimes: conspiracy to obstruct commerce by robbery and violence; commission of a crime, obstructing commerce by robbery and violence; bank robbery during which a murder resulted; and use of a deadly weapon during the commission of a crime in which death results.
Each of the charges involving murder could lead to the death penalty for Clary if he is convicted, authorities said.
The indictment said that Clary, who has been in trouble with the law much of his life, conspired from Aug. 1 to Aug. 5 with Vincent Reid and others to rob Brooks Armored Car guard Rudolph Matlack of money from the Midlantic Bank in the mall.
Reid, 28, of Camden, was killed in a wild exchange of gunfire at 3:30 p.m. near the bank on the mall's second level.
Matlack, 21, of Williamstown, was shot twice, but survived. He is believed to have killed Reid as the alleged robber tried to flee with Clary.
Two teenagers at the mall were fatally wounded in the exchange of gunfire. Nicholas Morris, 17, of Clayton, was hit four times and died just outside the mall. Maureen Lavin, 14, of Swedesboro, was struck in the head and died after two days on life support.
The federal complaint that named Clary said that in the hours after the shooting he went back to the Northgate 1 apartments in Camden and showed a friend two bags filled with money.
Officials have said Clary may have fled the mall with as much as $100,000.
A dozen FBI agents and New York City detectives arrested Clary on Sept. 17 as he sat in the back seat of a car at a gas station in Brooklyn.
Authorities said Clary has confirmed his identity, but has not given details about where he was before he was caught.
