Crime & Safety

UPDATED: Egg Harbor City Man Charged in Connection With 2010 Murder in Galloway

Rafael Olmo was charged on Thursday.

An Egg Harbor City man already in federal custody has been charged with murder and weapons charges in connection with a of a Bergen County man in Galloway Township that took place on Dec. 2, 2010.

Rafael Olmo, 28, was charged in connection with the fatal shooting of Leandro Rodriguez, 36, of Hackensack, Acting Atlantic County Prosecutor James P. McClain announced on Friday, July 13. The charges were authorized on Thursday, July 12.

Olmo is in custody on unrelated charges. He had been arrested on those charges on Dec. 17, 2010, 15 days after Rodriguez's body was discovered.

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Olmo is now being charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon by a convicted person.

On the afternoon of Dec. 2, 2010, police responded to reports of a dead body in the backyard of an unoccupied house on the 500 block of South Berlin Avenue in Galloway. In a discovery that on that street, it was discovered that Rodriguez had been shot in the face twice.

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According to the Office of U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, Olmo is in federal custody on charges including two counts distribution of CDS (cocaine), one count possession of firearms by previously convicted felon and one count transportation of firearms. This investigation began in late 2010, with the arrest taking place in December.

According to the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Olmo was incarcerated from June 29, 2004-Jan. 27, 2006 on three counts of possession of CDS.

Olmo was charged with another crime after his apprehension on the cocaine and weapons charges in December of 2010.

In April of last year, Olmo was one of three supsects charged in the shooting murder of an Egg Harbor City woman. As in Rodriguez's murder, Deanna Downs, of Egg Harbor City, was found in the backyard of her apartment complex, and had been shot in the face.

He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder alongside Mario Adams, of Hammonton, and Dontay Matthews, of Elwood.

Galloway Township Police and the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office Major Crimes Unit worked together on the Rodriguez murder investigation, McClain said.


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