Gang Member Admits Fatal Block Party Shooting
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A Trenton street gang member has admitted firing the fatal shots that killed a 13-year-old girl at a stop-the-violence block party in New Jersey's capital city four years ago.
Lamar Warren faces a 39-year sentence after pleading guilty this week to aggravated manslaughter and weapons possession. He will have to serve at least 30 years before becoming eligible for parole.
The 22-year-old Warren admitted taking part in the June 2009 drive-by shooting in Trenton. Several other gang members, including Warren's brother, have pleaded guilty in the case and had agreed to testify against him.
Lamar Warren was 18 when Tamrah Leonard was gunned down. Authorities say the bullets missed the intended targets — some rival gang members they had brawled with — and struck Leonard instead.
Authorities have said at least 20 bullets were sprayed into a crowd of 100 people at the block party.
Mercer County prosecutors say Warren, a member of the Sex Money Murder gang, plotted the drive-by shooting with fellow gang members. It was meant as retaliation against another gang, the Gangster Killer Bloods, whose members had shot at a Sex Money Murder member the previous day.
More than a dozen members of Leonard's family attended the hearing to watch Warren enter his plea, but they declined comment after the hearing concluded.
Warren is scheduled to be sentenced in October, along with the other gang members who have pleaded guilty in the case.
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