2004 Media Releases:

CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
VINCENT P. SARUBBI, CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
MEDIA   INFORMATION

April 8, 2004

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi announced that Dean Scott Lee, M/32, was sentenced today to 64 years in New Jersey State Prison for the Murder of a 24-year-old man in Camden, N.J., on March 22, 2000 and related weapons offenses. He must serve 33 years without parole eligibility.

Last month, a jury found Lee, of Sicklerville, guilty of fatally shooting Santiago Peralta, of the 700 block of Chestnut Street, that night while the victim was in his car in the 600 block of Spruce Street. Peralta died at Cooper University Hospital on March 24, 2000.

The victim had run out of a nearby alley, jumped into his car and driven at a high rate of speed down Spruce Street. The vehicle collided with a number of parked vehicles and came to rest in the 600 block of Spruce Street. As Peralta attempted to flee the vehicle, shots were fired into the vehicle from the passenger side.

Sarubbi noted the outstanding work of Camden Police, Assistant Prosecutor Mindy Mellits and Senior Investigator Kevin Kellejan, as well as the members of his office's Victim-Witness Unit, who spent many hours providing services to witnesses who testified in the case.

"This sentence takes a dangerous individual off the street for a long, long time," Sarubbi stated. "This result on is a credit to the hard-working and skillful detectives, attorneys and support staff members who put such dedicated effort into the case, and to the witnesses who had the courage to come forward and tell the truth."