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Feds: ID Thief Gets 4 Years For Stealing $600,000 From NJ Bank Customers Feds: ID Thief Gets 4 Years For Stealing $600,000 From NJ Bank Customers
Feds: ID Thief Gets 4 Years For Stealing $600,000 From NJ Bank Customers UPDATE: An admitted identity thief was sentenced to four years in federal prison for conspiring with a South Jersey bank employee and others to steal more than $600,000 from unsuspecting victims, federal authorities said. Lamar Melhado, 32, of the Bronx will have to serve just about all of the plea-bargained sentence handed down in U.S. District Court in Camden on Monday, March 7, because there's no parole in the federal prison system. Melhado received photos and screenshots of customers’ information and signatures from Mount Laurel bank call center employee Jamere Hill-Birdsong of Gloucest…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
GOTCHA! Package Thief Who Attacked Postal Carrier In Englewood Captured, Police Say GOTCHA! Package Thief Who Attacked Postal Carrier In Englewood Captured, Police Say
Gotcha! Package Thief Who Attacked Postal Carrier In Englewood Captured, Police Say A man wanted for mugging a postal carrier in broad daylight on a busy downtown Englewood street last month is in custody, authorities said. Ronald A. Benitez Santana, a 31-year-old Dominican national who lives in the Bronx, was nabbed by New Jersey State Police who stopped him for a traffic violation and found a warrant for his arrest in connection with the Feb. 10 incident, city Capt. Fred Pulice said. Santana was so intent on intercepting a particular delivery that day that he staked out the local postal annex, Pulice said. He also took cellphone photos of the contents of the carrier's t…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Defendant In Murder Of Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk Points To BF, His Dad Defendant In Murder Of Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk Points To BF, His Dad
Defendant In Murder Of Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk Points To BF, His Dad UPDATE: One of three people charged with the brutal murder of a Paterson woman told detectives that she saw her live-in boyfriend and his father carry a large box from their Totowa home to the victim's car the night she was believed killed, authorities said. The victim, Stephanie DeJesus, 38, had driven to the Gordon Avenue home where Justin Fisher and Joelle Martucci lived with their young son the night of Feb. 23, documents say security video shows. She'd driven there from a nearby pharmacy, according to an affidavit filed in Superior Court in Paterson. Martucci, 24, pulled up afterward…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Totowa Trio Charged With Killing Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk Totowa Trio Charged With Killing Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk
Totowa Trio Charged With Killing Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk UPDATE: One of three people charged with the brutal murder of a Paterson woman told detectives that she saw her live-in boyfriend and his father carry a large box from their Totowa home to the victim's car the night she was believed killed, authorities said. The victim, Stephanie DeJesus, 38, had driven to the Gordon Avenue home where Justin Fisher and Joelle Martucci lived with their young son the night of Feb. 23, documents say security video shows. She'd driven there from a nearby pharmacy, according to an affidavit filed in Superior Court in Paterson. Martucci, 24, pulled up afterward…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Pair Indicted In Slaying Of Innocent Victim, Beloved NJ Teen On Autism Spectrum Pair Indicted In Slaying Of Innocent Victim, Beloved NJ Teen On Autism Spectrum
Pair Indicted In Slaying Of Innocent Victim, Beloved NJ Teen On Autism Spectrum Two men have been indicted on charges in connection with the April 2021 shooting death of Yahsinn "YaYa" Robinson, an innocent victim on the Autism spectrum, right outside of his South Jersey home, authorities announced. The indictment was returned against Sylas Young, 20, and Kavon Carter, 24 — both of Pemberton — and signed by Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina on Tuesday, March 1. Young was charged with murder (first-degree), conspiracy to commit murder, gang criminality and weapons offenses, while Carter was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, gang criminality and pro…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
GOT EM! Totowa Trio Charged With Killing Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk GOT EM! Totowa Trio Charged With Killing Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk
GOT EM! Totowa Trio Charged With Killing Paterson Woman Found Stuffed In Car Trunk UPDATE: One of three people charged with the brutal murder of a Paterson woman told detectives that she saw her live-in boyfriend and his father carry a large box from their Totowa home to the victim's car the night she was believed killed, authorities said. The victim, Stephanie DeJesus, 38, had driven to the Gordon Avenue home where Justin Fisher and Joelle Martucci lived with their young son the night of Feb. 23, documents say security video shows. She'd driven there from a nearby pharmacy, according to an affidavit filed in Superior Court in Paterson. Martucci, 24, pulled up afterward…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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SHAMELESS: NJ Con Woman Admits Swindling Elderly Victims Of $675K In 'Lottery Winner' Scam SHAMELESS: NJ Con Woman Admits Swindling Elderly Victims Of $675K In 'Lottery Winner' Scam
Shameless: NJ Con Woman Admits Swindling Elderly Victims Of $675K In 'Lottery Winner' Scam A New Jersey woman admitted scamming seniors nationwide out of huge sums of money -- including $500,000 from one 94-year-old victim -- by telling them they'd won the lottery. Shanile Lyle, 28, of Orange, was part of an international crew that called and conned seniors across the U.S. out of at least $675,000, federal authorities said. The vulnerable victims “received telephone calls alerting them that they had won large sums of money and various other prizes,” according to a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark. They were then told they'd have to "pre-pay" taxes in order to c…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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GOTCHA! Ramsey Police Nab Late-Night Parts Thieves At Route 17 Dealership GOTCHA! Ramsey Police Nab Late-Night Parts Thieves At Route 17 Dealership
Gotcha! Ramsey Police Nab Late-Night Parts Thieves At Route 17 Dealership Ramsey police nabbed a trio of late-night part-strippers from South Jersey at a Route 17 auto dealership. Israel F. Ortiz, 19, and Britney Jimenez, 20, were arrested and a juvenile detained after police converged on the Mitsubishi dealership on the southbound highway just past Island Road shortly at 11:30 Wednesday, Feb. 16. The trio from Sewell in Gloucester County were "in the process of removing parts from a vehicle using battery-powered tools," Ramsey Police Chief Brian M. Lyman said. Jimenez, it turned out, had four outstanding warrants out of Camden County, records show. She and Ort…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Conspirator Who Used NJ High School Students To Cash Stolen COVID Stimulus Checks Gets 4 Years Conspirator Who Used NJ High School Students To Cash Stolen COVID Stimulus Checks Gets 4 Years
Conspirator Who Used NJ High School Students To Cash Stolen COVID Stimulus Checks Gets 4 Years One of a nest of criminals who paid New Jersey high school students to cash COVID stimulus checks stolen from the mail was sentenced to four years in federal prison. Because there's no parole in the federal prison system, Jeffrey Bennett, 27, of Irvington, must serve just about all of the plea-bargained sentence rubber-stamped by a U.S. District Court judge in Newark via videoconference on Monday, Feb. 14. Bennett -- a reputed associate of a group called "The Members" -- recruited U.S. Postal Service employees to steal checks, checkbooks, debit cards, and credit cards from the mail in excha…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
East Coast Luxury Car Theft Ring Smashed By PalPark Detectives East Coast Luxury Car Theft Ring Smashed By PalPark Detectives
East Coast Luxury Car Theft Ring Smashed By PalPark Detectives What at first seemed like a run-of-the-mill package theft led Palisades Park detectives to an organized theft ring that used bogus IDs to buy high-end luxury cars, authorities said. Jeon Kichul, a 43-year-old Korean national, was arrested last December after Detective David Chun identified him as the porch pirate who swiped a package containing a baseball glove from outside a resident’s home, Capt. Shawn Lee said. Kichul, who was also carrying bogus ID, was released pending further investigation, said Lee, the officer in charge of the department. Chun then learned that Jeon was "part of a …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Seventh Arrest Made In Ambush Killing Of Newark Man, 21, In Paterson Seventh Arrest Made In Ambush Killing Of Newark Man, 21, In Paterson
Seventh Arrest Made In Ambush Killing Of Newark Man, 21, In Paterson A seventh suspect has been charged with murder in the execution of a 21-year-old Newark man who was ambushed in the Silk City last year, authorities announced. Mick Cadet, 20, tried to fight Passaic County sheriff’s officers who seized him after he tried to run from them on Wednesday, authorities said Thursday. He was being held in the county jail. Cadet was among a group of people who planned and carried out the cold-blooded May 1 ambush of Jose Figueroa near the corner of Totowa and Redwood avenues, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Paterson Police Chief Ibrahim Baycora said…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
West New York Killer Brutally Beat Inmate For Latin Kings 'Hit Squad,' Indictment Charges West New York Killer Brutally Beat Inmate For Latin Kings 'Hit Squad,' Indictment Charges
West New York Killer Brutally Beat Inmate For Latin Kings 'Hit Squad,' Indictment Charges A convicted killer from West New York sent a fellow inmate to the hospital with a severe head injury as part of a deal with a prison "hit squad" run by a Latin Kings leader, authorities said. Daniel Balbuena, 29, carried out the beating in exchange for an assault on a rival of the Gran Familiar Mexicana gang by hit squad members, an indictment returned by a grand jury in Trenton alleges. Authorities last year charged Frank “Lafay” Blake of Hillside and several other current and former shank-armed inmates with an assault at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, as well as with plans to carry …

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by Jerry DeMarco