Lakewood murder shooting suspect held on $1M bail

LAKEWOOD — A township man has been charged in the Monday morning shooting death of 23-year-old Johntel Thomas.

Merrill Spencer, 34, was arrested Monday night and charged with murder, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Thomas was found unconscious on the sidewalk near a residential development at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Alder Street. He had a bullet wound in his left rib area, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato's office said investigators looked through surveillance video from the area.

"These and other investigative measures quickly developed information leading detectives to Merrill Spencer and a Lakewood residence he was known to frequent," the office said Tuesday in a statement.

Spencer later was arrested at a residential address on the boulevard. He was being held Tuesday at Ocean County Jail in lieu of $1 million cash bail.

Spencer's criminal record includes a conviction in 2004 on a third-degree cocaine possession charge out of Wildwood, for which he was sentenced to four years in prison. He was sentenced to 59 days in jail and two years of probation in 2009 after pleading guilty to fourth-degree criminal trespassing charges out of Ship Bottom, court records show.

This may be the first of two homicides so far this week in Lakewood. Local news website Lakewood Scoop reports that an individual was stabbed to death Tuesday morning in an apartment building on East Kennedy Boulevard.