Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 6

995 QJ i Long Branch man shot dead; link to Dec. murder probed a CI I I if Driver ksd in accident idenSSed as Dover man- DOVER TOWNSHIP: A 50-year-old man who died after his pickup hit a tree here Sunday was identified as -Neil Mazone of Dover Township, police said, -r Police would not release name until they contacted his family. An autopsy was being performed yesterday at Kimball Medical Center to determine the cause of his death, Sgt Kent Shuebrook said. The results were not available last night face of it, certainly there's a relation the two (victims) were related." "It appears there is a connection between these two homicides," added Long Branch Public Safety Director Louis Napoletano. He would not comment further.

Connors' body was found by his wife, Dolores, 42, about 7:20 a.m. She had just returned home to 231 Van Dyke Place from a late-night shift at a Freehold Township nursing home. "By habit, he would wait for her to come home before going to bed," Kaye said. "She found him on the couch, and there was blood all about" He said an autopsy by the Monmouth County medical examiner's office placed the time of death at between 1 and 7 a.m. Sunday.

Kaye said authorities retrieved bullet shell casings at the house, but he would not say what caliber they were, or even whether they were from a handgun or a larger weapon. There were gunpowder burns on Connors' head, indicating he was shot from close range. By WAYNE PARRY PRESS COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU LONG BRANCH Authorities are investigating whether the shooting death of a Van Dyke Place man Sunday is related to the murder and mutilation of his wife's sister in December. Nicholas W. Connors, 51, was shot to death inside his home early Sunday morning, Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said yesterday.

No arrests have been made in the case, the third murder in Long Branch this year and the 11th in the past 18 months here. The prosecutor said Connors considered himself the stepfather of another Long Branch murder victim, Anna Mejia, 24. Her throat was slashed and she was stabbed more than 20 times inside her Prospect Street apartment last December in what police believe may have been a drug-related killing. Kaye said authorities are investigating whether the two killings are related. "They could be," he said.

'On the trying to determine if there was forced entry to the house. "There appears to have been some disturbance at a portion of the property, but we haven't determined whether that's related yet," Kaye said, declining further comment Kaye said two children, ages 14 and 13, were asleep in the house at the time of the murder but did not see or hear anything. He would not say whether authorities have any suspects in the case. The prosecutor said that although Connors and his wife referred to Anna Mejia as their stepdaughter, she actually was Dolores Connors' sister. Me-jia's killer mutilated her body in several places, and authorities said at the time they were startled by the savagery inflicted upon her.

In the other two murders this yean Joseph William Michalski, 28, was charged with fatally stabbing his roommate, Joseph DeVito, 46, last week; and in January, Oscar Sanders, 29, was charged with murdering his 20-month-old daughter by punching her in the stomach and abdomen. Authorities are seeking the death penalty for Sanders. 1 slain, 3 hurt in weekend violence MARIE ORTIZSpeclal to th Prt Catherine DiChiara, owner of the Belmont Motel, Seaside Heights, has been ordered to tighten the spaces in this fence. rates during the off-season. "It's very difficult to maintain a living on a public assistance grant," Tessor said.

"It's virtually impossible in Ocean County to find a decent apartment for $400 or $500 a month." Fisher also ruled the old winter provisions violated the federal Fair Housing Act. The federal law requires that a person cannot be discriminated against for housing because of race, color, creed, religion, sex and familial status. The borough has requested Fisher reconsider his ruling on the Fair Housing Act and may appeal the decision, Camera said. Camera testified in Fisher's court that he believed the borough had been unfairly burdened with more social service contracts than other towns, but said the winter code was never meant to discriminate. It was written to ensure the safety of the children who were coming to live in town with their families, he stated.

If adopted, the requirements for electric smoke detectors and ground-fault interceptors will go into affect immediately. Motels and rental owners will have until January 1, 1996 to comply with the rest of the ordinance. Pre-existing buildings will not be Code From page Bl i Belmont Motel on Sheridan Avenue. i DiChiara said the borough was trying to make it difficult for motel and i property owners to house families with children who live in town during the off-season. Some properties are contracted by the county to house low-income people, many of whom also are on welfare.

"The maximum they stay is three months. Most of them don't even stay that long. It's just until they find some place else to go," DiChiara said "Is it better to have them out on the street?" Camera said the winter regulations 1 existed because the use of motels and i rentals differed between the seasons. People come to town for short stays in the summer, while others live for longer periods in the winter, he said. Now the borough hopes to eliminate any more controversies by establish-; i ing a year-round code that keeps the safety provisions.

Safe, affordable housing is hard to find, said Mark Tessor, a former Ocean County fair housing officer. Tessor, now the special projects manager for Homes For All, a private, nonprofit affordable housing devel-' oper, said some people have no choice but to live in motels that offer lower There's in Your Mazone's pickup was northbound on Route 527 when it veered off the road at MacPherson Avenue, Shuebrook said. The vehicle crashed into a tree behind the Le Resort community. Patrolmen Thomas Leach and James Wiest, members of the Ocean County Fatal Accident Support Team, are investigating, Shuebrook said. Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Steve Janosko, supervisor of the Fatal Accident Investigation Unit, also is investigating.

Boy charged in assault LACEY TOWNSHIP: A 14-year-old boy from the Toms River Regional School District was charged with aggravated assault, after he was accused of threatening another boy with a knife on a bus leaving the high school on May 9, police said. The teen-ager who was threatened also was 14 years old, Detective Henry Krzeczkowski said. Both were members of a visiting track team that was returning to its school after a meet. Krzeczkowski said the boy who was charged was arrested Friday and also charged with possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes and possession of a weapon on school grounds. He said the boy was released to his parents.

The boy's name was not re-' leased because he is a juvenile, Krzeczkowski said. Expansion From page Bl i were 817 students attending the Lan-oka Harbor SchooLwhich has a capacity of 742. The report also showed enrollments at the middle and high school were high, but do not exceed their building capacities. Starodub said enrollment is expected to continue to rise. He has said the elementary school population is expected to grow by 500 students in the next five years.

That is going to make it difficult to eliminate the need for more than one teacher in crowded classrooms and to remove elementary schoolchildren from trailers at the middle school, Starodub said. 1 In other business Although specifications for repairing the high school football field and resurfacing the track are still pending, work could begin this summer, Kil-murraysaid. With help from the township's public works department, work on the football field may start in July and the track may be repaired in September, he said. All work is pending the board's approval. Bicyclist hit, hurt critically PRESS TOMS RIVER BUREAU SEASIDE HEIGHTS An 18-year-old borough man struck by a car while riding his bicycle at Grant Avenue and the Boulevard was in critical condition last night, police The bicyclist, Armando Lasama, was transported by helicopter to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, after the 9 p.m.

accident, according to police dispatcher Michelle Putman. A hospital spokeswoman said Lasama was in critical condition. Putman could not provide the name of the motorist Police were unable to provide any other details late last night She said Patrolman Thomas Yannacone Jr. and Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor Steve Janosko were investigating the accident a Traffic along Route 37 into the borough was stopped to allow the helicopter to land, Putman said. Tri-boro First Aid and the Seaside Heights Fire Department assisted.

The prosecutor said authorities are Stewart frequented, including J.P. Ma-loney's, a bar on Main Street around the corner and very "close to where Stewart was found. Stewart did not have identification on him at the time firefighters and paramedics transported him to the hospital. Kaye said he did not know if Stewart had been robbed. One resident in the block who spoke on condition of anonymity said she was watching television and heard loud voices of what sounded like young men about 20 minutes before police arrived at the scene.

Authorities yesterday were investigating the homicide of Kevin Stewart, 31, who died from stab wounds in his chest and was found lying in the street in front of a boarded-up building at 703 Fourth Ave. about 2:10 a.m. She said she did not know if those voices were related to the stabbing. Another resident said she heard nothing from the time she went to bed at midnight until police knocked on her door at 4 a.m. Donohue said the fatality was the first murder in the city since May 1994 when there were two homicides a 22-year-old Eatontown woman shot in a dispute over drugs, and an Ocean Township woman fatally shot in the Refuge Pentecostal Temple on Bangs Avenue.

Police yesterday also were investigating the shooting of Archie Benjamin, 23, of Second Avenue, about 1:55 Renewal From page Bl and designer, added flags, rainbows and anchors to code the map for easier reading. "It is a little bit busy," Coronato said of the brochure's colorful design, "but we wanted to show there are a lot of things happening." Protest From page Bl Town Hall all day; it's not going to affect anyone but us." She said they are marching for two reasons: To raise awareness that Jasmine's family still is dissatisfied with the careless driving charge and is hoping the state attorney general sends the matter to a grand jury; and to let the Yeshiva community and the politicians know that the black community resents that the Yeshiva community seems to enjoy the bulk of the new housing being built here. Crews acknowledged that the new housing apparently is being built with private funds. "But it all seems to be goijig to one community," she said. By NANCY SHIELDS PRESS COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU ASBURY PARK One man was fatally stabbed, another shot in the neck and a third beaten over the head with a pipe about the same time but at different locations Sunday, police said yesterday.

Twenty-four hours earlier, a fourth man was shot in both arms as he sat in a car outside a Second Avenue bar about 2 a.m. Saturday. The stabbing, shootings and beating are believed to be unrelated, police said. Authorities yesterday were investigating the homicide of Kevin Stewart, 31, who died from stab wounds in his chest and was found lying in the street in front of a boarded-up building at 703 Fourth Ave. about 2:10 a.m.

Sunday, Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said yesterday. The city's emergency medical technicians tried to revive Stewart, who lived in the 400 block of Brinley Avenue in Bradley Beach. But Stewart did not respond, according to the ambulance report, and he was pronounced dead shortly afterward at Jersey Shore Medical Center, Neptune, Detective Lt. John Donohue said. "The apparent cause of death was stabbing from puncture wounds," Kaye said.

"They did find a broken knife nearby. We don't know whether that's the weapon." Results of an autopsy established the cause of death as stab wounds to the chest the prosecutor's office reported late yesterday afternoon. Kaye said investigators are looking at several places in the city where LMm Monbff FDiC MSG tat a.m. Sunday. Police said Benjamin, who knew his assailant, was shot in the neck outside the Oasis Bar on First Avenue and Langford Street Benjamin was in fair condition yesterday at Jersey Shore Medical Center.

Authorities have issued a warrant for the assailant on a charge of attempted murder, Donohue said. Police would not name the suspect About the same time Sunday, police responded to reports of a body lying in the street on Fourth Avenue. Hao Lu, of Main Street, was hit over the head with a metal pipe in an apparent dispute over food he was carrying as he left a Chinese takeout restaurant at 705 Main police said. Lu was leaving the restaurant where he works, carrying an order of food and approaching a friend's car waiting outside when he was beaten over the head and robbed of the food, Lu's cousin, Tony Lu, Neptune, said yesterday. Lu, whose age was not available yesterday, suffered a cut on the front of his head, according to the ambulance report.

He was in fair condition at Jersey Shore Medical Center yesterday. Police also are investigating a shooting that took place about 2 a.m. Saturday when Saleem Foster, 22, Neptune, was sitting in a car outside the Seductions Bar at Second Avenue and Kinglsey Street Several individuals approached the car and Foster was shot in both forearms, Donohue said. Foster was released from the hospital Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said. Numerous other designers and volunteers helped to prepare the guide which Coronato used yesterday to show how easily the plan could be extended to other communities.

Beachwood's new boardwalk for example, could be extended through South Toms River and then into Huddy Park. South Toms River's improvements to Mathis Plaza, a waterfront park in that borough, could become part of the overall design, he said. A regional approach is the best way to assure success, Coronato said. When asked if the march could become dangerous, she said: "We have some mild resentment about the housing, but not enough to be violent." James Waters, one of the few black residents to have run for local public office here, said yesterday: "I have some reservations about showing disrespect to someone's religion. But these residents want to show the Jewish community that they exist" Waters said he plans to march on Saturday.

Fred Rush, president of the Lake-wood-Ocean County chapter of the NAACP, said, "They are marching there to say, 'At least now you will see me. You haven't seen me in the past' Rush said he cannot march because he is attending a state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Saturday in Gloucester County. grandfathered in, Camera said. The intent of the ordinance is property maintenance, which applies to all, he said. Money Hidden Home, Discover The Equity In Your Home With A Home Equity Credit Line From Garden State Bank.

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