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FRIDAY 11.20.15

Mary
Lees
back
Has the 16-foot
great white shark
returned to
Barnegat Bay? 11C

COLD CASE SOLVED:

THREE CHARGED IN
TEACHERS MURDER
Jonelle Melton slain
in her Neptune City
home in Sept. 2009

Authorities believe
killers aimed to rob
another apartment

Family, colleagues
from Red Bank
schools at hearing

Lakewood
schools are
still $6M
in the hole
SHANNON MULLEN @MULLENAPP

LAKEWOOD - The school district is facing a $6 million deficit after a courtesy busing plan failed to produce the cost savings the district anticipated.
In a surprise announcement before the Board of
Education, Schools Superintendent Laura A. Winters
said the bids for bus routes serving some 11,000 private and public schoolchildren came in between 40
percent and 50 percent higher than expected.
As a result, the district will run out of funds to pay
for those routes before the school year is over, possibly as soon as February, Board President Ada Gonzalez said.
We wont have any money, Gonzalez said.
The development Wednesday sets up a possible
showdown between the school board and the districts
state-appointed monitor, Michael Azzara, who wants
to hold an emergency referendum on Jan. 26 asking
voters to provide an additional $6 million to keep the
buses rolling.
With Azzara absent from Wednesdays meeting due
See LAKEWOOD, Page 15A

New Jerseyans
dont want rise
in gasoline tax
BOB JORDAN @BOBJORDANAPP

TANYA BREEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Family members and friends hug Thursday before acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced
three men were charged with felony murder and other offenses in the 2009 killing of Red Bank teacher Jonelle Melton (below).

TRENTON - A solid majority of New Jerseyans say

in a new poll they are opposed to an increase in the
states gasoline tax, but key lawmakers are looking to
raise the tax anyway.
Here are five takeaways from the gasoline tax picture as well as results from the statewide survey of
adults released Thursday by Fairleigh Dickinson Universitys PublicMind:
1. Sixty-two percent say they are opposed to raising
the gas tax for road and bridge repairs, with 36 percent in favor. The opposition to higher prices at the
pumps was slightly stronger when FDU polled at the
start of the year it was 68 percent opposed then, 28
percent in favor.
2. At issue is the 14.5-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax,
which has not been raised in more than two decades. It
is the second-lowest gas tax in the U.S. Almost all of

KATHLEEN HOPKINS @KHOPKINSAPP

See TAX, Page 15A

FREEHOLD - For more than six years, the unsolved

murder of Red Bank school teacher Jonelle Melton left
her family and school community in anguish until
authorities on Thursday announced charges against
three convicted criminals they say killed her in a tragic case of mistaken identity.
Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher
Gramiccioni held a news conference Thursday to announce charges against James Fair, 27, Ebenezer
Byrd, 35, and Gregory Jean-Baptiste, 26, all Asbury
Park residents with criminal records.
All three were charged with felony murder and other offenses in connection with the Sept. 14, 2009, death
of Melton, 33, a social studies teacher at Red Bank Middle School.
This has been a nightmare for over six years, Michael Melton, the victims estranged husband, said at
the news conference. There was a time I didnt think

Jersey Alive!

Still
Alice
Folk legend Arlo Guthrie
celebrates 50 years of
Thanksgiving classic.

See MURDER, Page 11A

See video, photos and stories related to the Jonelle Melton murder
case on your mobile or desktop device at

www.app.com

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