Man Pleads Guilty to Fatal Shooting at Apartment Complex in Maple Shade, NJ

A man from Willingboro has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a 22-year-old woman inside her Maple Shade apartment three years ago.

Under an agreement with the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office, 23-year-old Semaj T. Pittman pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter in exchange for a 25-year state prison sentence.

Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw's office says an investigation began on the afternoon of February 23rd, 2020, after officers from the Maple Shade Police Department were called to The Arbors apartment complex on Lenola Road for a report of a shooting.

At the scene, they found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds coming out of the elevator on the ground floor.

Get our free mobile app

Both victims were transported to Cooper University Medical Center in Camden, where the woman, 22-year-old Kayla Winkler, was pronounced dead. Her boyfriend, Ramek Bass of Philadelphia, was treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder.

The investigation revealed that Pittman and a juvenile teenager went to the apartment to rob Winkler and Bass, with whom they were acquainted. After they were allowed inside, Pittman pulled a gun and shot the victims as they tried to leave the apartment.

The teenager, from Evesham Township, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last year.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 30th.