Suspect in N.J. homicide cases to appear in court at Houlton

LIMESTONE – A 21-year-old Trenton, N.J., man taken into custody at the Loring Job Corps Center on Wednesday will make his initial appearance in court on Friday, a spokesperson for the Aroostook County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

It was believed Thursday that Kareem Singleton would appear in Aroostook County Superior Court at Houlton sometime late this morning.

Singleton was arrested at noon Wednesday and has been held without bail at the Aroostook County Jail on a fugitive from justice warrant from New Jersey. He is wanted in connection with four homicides in Trenton, N.J.

In one of the cases, he is alleged to have helped a murder suspect leave the state. He also is suspected to have taken part in the murder of a man and two of his children. He was the last of 11 suspects sought in the triple homicide.

Singleton was taken into custody without incident.

Singleton had been a masonry student at the Loring Job Corps Center for the last month, police said.

Officials at the Loring Job Corps Center did not return telephone calls Thursday.

Job Corps centers offer residential and career training for youths 16 to 24 years of age. They provide education, job training, assistance with job placement, and follow-up support to attendees.

Youths attending Job Corps programs must be free of court or institutional supervision and free of court-imposed fines.

New Jersey authorities believe Singleton was involved in three murders in Trenton. Those happened during a gang crime spree that included the fatal shooting of an alleged rival gang member. Singleton is believed, according to Aroostook County Sheriff James Madore, to be a ranking member of an inner-city gang known as the Bounty Hunter Bloods. Singleton also is known by his nickname, “Red Bear.”

According to the Trentonian newspaper, between March 30 and May 26 last year, the gang members were linked to the firebombing of 24-year-old Rasheen Glover’s home in Trenton that killed the father and his two daughters, Janaya Glover, 6, and Jyasia Watson, 7.

There was also a shooting, Molotov cocktail bombing of a dealership, the burning of two houses, and the murder of rival gangster Deneshia Ledbetter behind a high school.

Authorities said Kelvin Barnes, 18, of Trenton allegedly bought the gasoline and bombed Glover’s home because the victim “publicly disrespected” the gang member during an ongoing dispute over drugs.

According to the New Journal in Wilmington, Del., Singleton also was charged with drug possession in April 2005.

The Superior Court warrant seeking Singleton’s arrest came to the sheriff’s department from Mercer County, N.J.

Madore said the information about Singleton being at the Job Corps Center came to them from the U.S. Border Patrol and the Central Maine Violent Crimes Task Force.