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FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — Three men have been charged in the 2009 beating death of a middle school teacher in what authorities say was a case of mistaken identity.
The charges against James Fair, Ebenezer Byrd and Gregory Jean-Baptiste, all of Asbury Park, were announced Thursday by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's office.
Jonelle Melton's body was found in September 2009 inside her Neptune City apartment. The 33-year-old taught at a middle school in Red Bank.
Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said Fair, Byrd and Jean-Baptiste had planned to rob a different apartment in the same complex but broke into Melton's apartment by mistake.
They face charges including felony murder, robbery and weapons possession. Fair, 27, and Jean-Baptiste, 26, are in jail awaiting trial on unrelated charges, and Byrd, 35, is serving a 12-year sentence for two unrelated shootings, Gramiccioni said.
All three are being held on $1.5 million cash-only bail.
Melton was active in the school community as a member of the School Improvement team and the Leadership Program at Red Bank Regional High School and as a student council adviser, according to the prosecutor's office. She also was an active member of the Christian Woman's Encouragement Group.
Gramiccioni said investigators took advantage of a county Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line and reward program to develop a lead that the three suspects had planned a burglary in the complex.
It wasn't immediately known if the three had retained attorneys.
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