A Whitehall man has been convicted for his role in a 2022 ambush shooting that left one person dead and another injured.
Xavier Grenon, 27, was found guilty Friday of two counts of conspiracy to commit homicide and one count of aggravated assault in an attack that killed 22-year-old Najeer Lane of Allentown.
Co-defendants 26-year-old Frederick Antwan Marks Jr. of Bath and 20-year-old Legious Robert Minder Jr. of Bethlehem also have been charged in the slaying.
Minder pleaded guilty in October 2024 to third-degree murder and other charges, and is serving 40 to 80 years in state prison.
Marks is awaiting trial and remains incarcerated.
Grenon’s conviction came last week after a five-day jury trial before Lehigh County Judge Thomas M. Caffrey. Grenon faces as much as 60 years in state prison when he is sentenced April 17.
Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan announced the verdict Friday evening.
Grenon’s defense attorney, Rory Drisole, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Sunday.
The shooting happened shortly before 11 p.m. on Aug. 31, 2022, in the 1000 block of West Juniata Street on the south side of Allentown.
Lane was a passenger in a car driven by Bless Jones. Grenon, Minder and Marks agreed to meet Jones at Allentown’s Trout Creek Park, authorities alleged.
While en route to the park, Jones and Lane were ambushed by the trio, prosecutors said.
A total of 13 rounds were fired at the car from a 9mm handgun modified with a Glock switch. The switch allowed the semi-automatic gun to fire as fully automatic, with the 13 rounds going off in approximately one second, according to prosecutors.
Lane was killed with a single gunshot wound to his back, but Jones escaped and drove to his home. Less than an hour later, Grenon and his co-defendants arrived at that location and fired 12 rounds at Jones and a second person, missing both of them, prosecutors said.
Grenon was also convicted of the attempted murder of Jones, prosecutors said.
Lane’s death occurred five years after his brother Parris Lane, 19, was shot and killed in a parking lot across from city hall.
Joshwynn Adrian Garcia, then 21, of Allentown, later pleaded guilty in that killing.
Last week’s case was investigated by Allentown Police Sgt. Harold Bonser and Detective Amaury Almonte of the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force, as well as Lehigh County’s 12th Investigating Grand Jury.
It was prosecuted by Lehigh County Chief Deputy District Attorney Bethany S. Zampogna and Lehigh County Senior District Attorney Patricia Turzyn.