Life In Prison For Men Who Beat, Murdered Red Bank Teacher

RED BANK, NJ — The men who brutally beat, stabbed and shot Red Bank schoolteacher Jonelle Melton in her apartment in 2009 — killing her — will "die in prison," Monmouth County Judge Joseph Oxley said Thursday in court, a spokesman for the Monmouth County prosecutor confirmed to Patch.

Melton, a 33-year-old social studies teacher at Red Bank Middle School, was killed on the night of Sept. 13, 2009 in her apartment in the Brighton Arms complex in Neptune City. Prosecutors say the stunning murder was a mistaken identity case, a would-be drug robbery orchestrated by a member of the Bloods gang in Asbury Park — except her killers broke into the wrong unit. When they found the fifth-grade teacher inside, they killed her. It was a particularly vicious murder: The three men beat Melton, breaking her jaw twice, stabbed her five times and shot her twice, the Asbury Park Press reported.

In March of this year, a Monmouth County jury found the three men accused of her murder guilty. The three men, Ebenezer Byrd, 39, and Gregory A. Jean-Baptiste, 30, both of Asbury Park, and Jerry J. Spraulding, 41, of Keansburg, are all career criminals with lengthy rap sheets.

This week Judge Oxley sentenced all three men to life in prison, a combined 305 years behind bars.

A fourth man, James Fair, 29, of Asbury Park, already pleaded guilty in 2017 for orchestrating the burglary: Prosecutors say Fair told the other three men about a drug dealer who lived in the Brighton Arms complex, and told the men he kept cash in his freezer.

The three other men broke into Melton's apartment, looking for the cash. Inside, they found her inside. The Brighton Arms complex is located at 311 West Sylvania Ave. in Neptune.

Melton's estranged husband went to check on her the next morning when she failed to arrive at her job at Red Bank Middle School. Melton and her husband were separated at the time and she was living alone in the apartment.

Officers and MONOC paramedics arrived shortly thereafter and pronounced her deceased.

Melton was preparing to teach fifth grade at Red Bank Middle School when she was killed. She was an active member of the school community; as a member of the School Improvement team, the Leadership Program at Red Bank Regional High School, and selected to serve as the student council adviser.

She was also an active member of the Christian Woman's Encouragement Group, and was scheduled to officially become a member of the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Lake Como during its annual Woman's Day celebration.

When the men were charged with her murder, three of them were incarcerated:

Fair was awaiting trial on a 219-count indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, attempted murder, robbery and numerous other drug and weapons offenses. He has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for those charges.

Byrd is currently serving a 12-year state prison sentence for two separate Asbury Park shootings that also occurred in 2009, and is being held in state prison in Trenton, according to Department of Corrections records.

And Jean-Baptiste was awaiting trial on three separate indictments charging him with drug distribution and gun possession and is being held at the Mercer County Correctional Institution, in Hopewell Township.

Prior Patch reporting: Trio Charged In Brutal 2009 Murder Of Red Bank Teacher