Gloucester Township

A Gloucester Township youth was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison for fatally stabbing his former foster father last year, authorities said. Demetrius Minor, 16, must serve 85 percent of his sentence for the aggravated manslaughter of Theotis Butts before he will be eligible for parole. He received an additional 10 years, to be served concurrently, for an unrelated carjacking. Minor stabbed Butts on July 11. He had carjacked a couple at gunpoint and driven away with their car May 29. At Minor's sentencing in New Jersey Superior Court, Wanda Broach-Butts spoke to him about what she and her husband had tried to do as his foster parents.

A Winslow Township man was charged with careless driving yesterday in connection with the death of Desiree Dale Dottoli, 15, who was struck by an automobile while on her way to school Friday morning. Miss Dottoli was incorrectly identified in an Inquirer story Saturday. She was treated at Cooper Hospital Trauma Center in Camden and died at 10 a.m. Saturday. Stephen Danifo, 20, of Sicklerville, hit Miss Dottoli as she crossed the intersection of Williamstown Road and Kohomo Avenue in Gloucester Township, police said.

Camden County authorities said yesterday that they had arrested 14 people and seized drugs, guns, cash and automobiles in the breakup of a four-county cocaine distribution network. The four-month investigation centered on Wendell Robinson, 50, of Gloucester Township, who Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said had sold cocaine to people in Camden, Gloucester, Burlington and Atlantic Counties. Investigators contend that a Pennsauken woman, Kelly Ann Baylor, 35, was one of Robinson's main suppliers, Sarubbi said.

The Roots will help celebrate our nation's roots on the Fourth of July as the house band for the Philly 4th of July Jam at Eakins Oval on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Mayor Nutter announced on Thursday. "The largest free concert in the United States," as Nutter called the event, is the brainchild of Welcome America! musical director Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, who has invited an array of headliners, including Pottstown native Daryl Hall and superstahs Queen Latifah, Common, and Joe Jonas.

What town is this? "Blackwood," the woman in the convenience store replied with a smile. "Clementon," said the man in the ice cream place. "You're on the edge of Sicklerville," the gas station attendant declared with authority. "Where are you trying to go?" Gloucester Township. "You're in Glendora," another service-station worker said. That's funny. According to a map, it was all Gloucester Township. No question: Gloucester Township is suffering from an identity crisis.

Camden County Superintendent Win Tillery left no doubt in the minds of those who make up the Black Horse Pike Regional School District: Breaking up is hard to do. At a meeting Tuesday, Tillery told a few dozen school administrators and politicians, many of them eager to dissolve the district serving Bellmawr, Runnemede and Gloucester Township, several things they didn't want to hear. First, a bond referendum for a third, $40 million high school will go on as planned, even as Bellmawr and Runnemede try to split from the 20-year-old district to avoid pay ing for a new building.

Diesel fuel from an underground supply line at a NJ Transit bus depot tainted about four miles of waterway in Washington and Gloucester Townships before emergency crews contained it Thursday. Roughly 26,000 gallons of diesel fuel from the ruptured underground line seeped into a storm drain and a stream leading to Grenloch Lake, which is in Washington Township and Gloucester Township, and into Blackwood Lake in Gloucester Township, said Lawrence Hajna, a spokesman with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Diesel fuel from an underground supply line at a NJ Transit bus depot tainted about four miles of waterway in Washington and Gloucester Townships before emergency crews contained it Thursday. Roughly 26,000 gallons of diesel fuel from the ruptured underground line seeped into a storm drain and a stream leading to Grenloch Lake, which is in Washington Township and Gloucester Township, and into Blackwood Lake in Gloucester Township, said Larry Hajna, a spokesman with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Former Flyers coach Paul Holmgren has been charged with driving while intoxicated following a Monday night auto accident in Blackwood, N.J., according to a Gloucester Township, N.J., police spokeswoman. Holmgren, who has been a scout for the team since his Dec. 4 firing, was driving north on Little Gloucester Road about 9 p.m. when his vehicle struck a vehicle driven by Jan Karpinski, of Gloucester Township, according to a prepared police statement. Holmgren's vehicle left the road and overturned, the statement said.

The Roots will help celebrate our nation's roots on the Fourth of July as the house band for the Philly 4th of July Jam at Eakins Oval on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Mayor Nutter announced on Thursday. "The largest free concert in the United States," as Nutter called the event, is the brainchild of Welcome America! musical director Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, who has invited an array of headliners, including Pottstown native Daryl Hall and superstahs Queen Latifah, Common, and Joe Jonas.

A Gloucester Township youth was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison for fatally stabbing his former foster father last year, authorities said. Demetrius Minor, 16, must serve 85 percent of his sentence for the aggravated manslaughter of Theotis Butts before he will be eligible for parole. He received an additional 10 years, to be served concurrently, for an unrelated carjacking. Minor stabbed Butts on July 11. He had carjacked a couple at gunpoint and driven away with their car May 29. At Minor's sentencing in New Jersey Superior Court, Wanda Broach-Butts spoke to him about what she and her husband had tried to do as his foster parents.

Diesel fuel from an underground supply line at a NJ Transit bus depot tainted about four miles of waterway in Washington and Gloucester Townships before emergency crews contained it Thursday. Roughly 26,000 gallons of diesel fuel from the ruptured underground line seeped into a storm drain and a stream leading to Grenloch Lake, which is in Washington Township and Gloucester Township, and into Blackwood Lake in Gloucester Township, said Larry Hajna, a spokesman with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Diesel fuel from an underground supply line at a NJ Transit bus depot tainted about four miles of waterway in Washington and Gloucester Townships before emergency crews contained it Thursday. Roughly 26,000 gallons of diesel fuel from the ruptured underground line seeped into a storm drain and a stream leading to Grenloch Lake, which is in Washington Township and Gloucester Township, and into Blackwood Lake in Gloucester Township, said Lawrence Hajna, a spokesman with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

A campaign flier endorsing an independent candidate in the race for the Gloucester Township Council is drawing accusations of political subterfuge. Darren Gladden, an unemployed stay-at-home dad who is running as a "conservative independent," said he was shocked to see a mailer promoting his campaign with the name of a well-known local Democratic political action committee at the bottom. "I coach a youth football team, and one of my coaches said, 'Yo, I got your mailer.' I said I didn't have a mailer; I can barely pay my mortgage," Gladden said Thursday evening.

A two-foot alligator was found and captured in Gloucester Township as residents cleaned up in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene on Sunday. A resident of the Lakeview Apartments on Lower Landing Road spotted the reptile under a bridge behind one of the apartment complex buildings near a lake. By the time police arrived, the resident had caught the alligator and taped its mouth shut to keep it from biting. The Department of Environmental Protection was notified, police said.

For months, activists in Gloucester Township have campaigned for an ordinance that they say would prevent firms that make political contributions from getting contracts with the town. Similar measures have passed in other New Jersey municipalities, but Gloucester Township officials have resisted. Such a ban, they say, would funnel campaign contributions through special-interest nonprofit groups that, unlike traditional campaign committees, don't have to disclose where their donations come from.

With their windows closed and air conditioners humming, most in the neighborhood didn't realize anything was amiss until the police cars arrived. Ed Sandell was inside with his wife when a man from down the street came by to ask if Sandell had heard any unusual sounds. "He said, 'Ted's dead,' " Sandell recalled. "I went over to look. He was on the floor with his feet by the front door. There was blood on the walls and the door. It was pretty gruesome. " Around 9:30 p.m. Monday in the Blackwood section of Gloucester Township, a relative discovered the body of Theotis Butts, a 69-year-old retiree, in the foyer of his home on Hemlock Drive, a sedate cul-de-sac near the south branch of Timber Creek.

A Camden County grand jury returned an indictment Tuesday against the 21-year-old man accused of hurling a police dog onto a highway last year. A former football standout at Washington Township High School, Skyler Robinson, was arrested in November after allegedly robbing a Chinese takeout shop and then killing the dog during the subsequent police chase along Route 42 in Gloucester Township. Lawyer Saul Steinberg, who is representing Robinson, said the grand jury heard only "the limited evidence which the prosecution chose to present.