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Ten inmates charged in fatal beating
By Star-Ledger
Published: 10/23/2003

Ten inmates at the Essex County, N.J. jail annex in North Caldwell were charged yesterday with murdering 19-year-old Lamonte Gallemore, a new inmate who was beaten, apparently after he could not prove he was a member of the Crips gang.

According to a law enforcement source close to the investigation, Gallemore willingly submitted to a gang initiation, which involved being beaten by several Crips members.

The defendants, all alleged members of the notorious gang, range in age from 19 to 40. They were being housed in a cellblock at the annex designated for Crips members. Five of the men are from Newark, four from Irvington and one from East Orange, authorities said.

In addition to murder, all 10 have been charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and solicitation or recruitment to join a gang, authorities said.

Gallemore was beaten to death in a shower area after he arrived at the jail annex Sunday afternoon. The incident "was allegedly related to his claim to be part of a street gang that other inmates at the jail annex allegedly belonged to," according to a statement yesterday from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

After the beating, Gallemore was taken to Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, where he was pronounced dead. The initial ruling of the cause of death is blunt force trauma, authorities said.

Arrested in Irvington Oct. 12 after he allegedly stole several items from a grocery store and punched the store owner, Gallemore was placed in the county jail in Newark the next day. In fear of members of the Bloods gang there, Gallemore asked to be transferred to the jail annex, law enforcement sources said.

For two years, the county has been segregating members of the Bloods and Crips to prevent the continuation of gang warfare from on the streets. Such transfers have become routine for inmates who identify themselves as gang members, county officials said.

On Sunday, Gallemore was transferred with two other inmates who said they were Crips. Forty-five minutes after he arrived, Gallemore was found by a corrections officer.



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