If Javad Marshall-Fields were still here, he would be eating collard greens and barbecue baby-back ribs for his birthday.
He would have gone to church Sunday with his family and partied the night away in LoDo with his best friends.
His 4-year-old niece would still be practicing her flower- girl steps for his upcoming wedding. And his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, would have been at his side. The couple were shot to death June 20 in Aurora.
Marshall-Fields was scheduled to be a key witness in a murder trial. He told prosecutors he saw the driver of a getaway car leaving the scene of a shooting July 4, 2004.
While prosecutors have not charged anyone with the murders of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe, they have labeled people involved in the July 4 shooting as “persons of interest.”
On Sunday, Marshall-Fields’ family celebrated what would have been his 23rd birthday with a special service at Mount Gilead Baptist Church in Denver. They also released white balloons at his grave.
“His future was stolen from him, and he was such an innovative young man,” said his sister, Maisha Pollard, 27. “On the way to church this morning, I asked my mom, ‘What would he be excited about? What would he be doing?”‘
Pollard’s 4-year-old daughter, Nyrema, knew Sunday was her uncle’s birthday.
The little girl still asks her mother, “When will I ever be a flower girl?”
Wolfe gave Nyrema a book about flower girls before she was murdered.
Pollard says her daughter remembers her brother, and that helps her heal after his death.
“Children have a way of bringing warmth and life,” Pollard said. “I am so happy this does not affect her the way it affects me.”
Marshall-Fields’ father, Marion Fields, was at the church wearing a pendant that bears the images of his son and Wolfe.
“I wear this close to my heart,” he said, wiping his eyes. “It’s hard waking up and knowing my son is not here in the physical. Sometimes for me, it’s like it never happened. It’s hard to embrace.”
Rhonda Fields described her son and his fiancée as two shining stars who were snuffed out.
Her son’s grave is under a pine tree next to Wolfe’s at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge. The graves are unmarked because the families are still working on what the marker should say, said Vivian Wolfe’s mother, Christine.
Rhonda Fields approached her son’s grave. She and Wolfe’s mother put white and red roses down and wished her son a happy birthday.
“You were a noble and courageous young man,” Rhonda Fields said. “We miss you.”
With that, Rhonda Fields, her family and her son’s best friends let go of 23 white balloons.
“Here are 23 wishes for you,” she called out as the balloons disappeared into the sky. “We love you.”
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
