In March 2023, Javien Perch headed out to walk to a friend’s house.
He never made it there.
After not hearing from the 19-year-old for two days, his family reported his disappearance to Reading police. And about a week later, his bullet-riddled body was found in a wooded area of Mount Penn.
On Thursday, two of the three men accused of killing him were convicted of murder.
Following four days of testimony, a jury found Vashon Winfield and Hector Torres guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, along with other related charges.
Winfield, 21, and Torres, 23, both of Reading, remain in Berks County Jail pending sentencing in May.
A third suspect, Ansari Jalal, remains at large.
The trio were accused of approaching Perch as he walked down North 10th Street and forcing him into a car. They then drove him to a wooded area along Oak Lane, just beyond the city line in Alsace Township.
There, they shot Perch several times execution-style.
Investigators said they were aided in the investigation by the family providing crucial information on Perch’s final movements. Family members tracked his movement via cellphone application Life360, which relies on GPS and cellular data.
Investigators said the city’s license-plate readers and pole-mounted cameras led them to identify the car his killers used to abduct him, which eventually led them to a witness to the kidnapping and murder.
Along with the first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, Winfield and Torres were convicted of second-degree murder; conspiracy to commit second-degree murder; robbery; conspiracy to commit robbery; two counts of kidnapping; two counts of conspiracy to commit kidnapping; aggravated assault; and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.
Torres was also convicted of carrying a firearm without a license, while Winfield was found not guilty of that count.