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South Jersey Man Gets 25 Years State Prtison In Fatal Apartment Shooting: Prosecutor

A 24-year-old man from Willingboro has been sentenced to 25 years in New Jersey State Prison for fatally shooting a 22-year-old woman three years ago inside her Maple Shade apartment, authorities said.

Semaj T. Pittman

Semaj T. Pittman

Photo Credit: Burlington County Prosecutor's Office

Semaj T. Pittman was sentenced on Friday, Sept. 22 on the first-degree aggravated manslaughter conviction, according to Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw.

Pittman must serve about 21 years of the term before becoming eligible for parole, she said.

The investigation began on Feb. 23, 2020, after officers from the Maple Shade Police Department were called to The Arbors apartment complex on Lenola Road for a shooting. Police found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds coming out of the elevator on the ground floor.

Both victims were taken to Cooper University Medical Center in Camden, where the woman, 22-year-old Kayla Winkler, was pronounced dead. Her boyfriend, Ramek Bass of Philadelphia, who was 24 at the time, was treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder.

The investigation revealed that Pittman and a juvenile teenager went to the apartment to rob Winkler and Bass, with whom they were acquainted. After they were allowed inside, Pittman pulled a gun and shot the victims as they tried to leave the apartment, Bradshaw said.

The teenager, an Evesham Township resident, pleaded guilty last year to first-degree murder.

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