Court documents: Inmate admitted to killing cellmate
Court documents related to the death of a 38-yearold Mercer County inmate alleges that the suspect “admitted to purposely and knowingly” killing the victim.
Darryl Boone, a 38-yearold Mercer County inmate, was found dead at the Mercer County Correction Center Saturday around 1:30 a.m. Prosecutors allege that Boone’s cellmate, 19-yearold Lamar Gaines, is responsible for the murder, and that Gaines admitted to the killing by telling correction officers, “I killed him.”
Court documents obtained by The Trentonian Tuesday state that Gaines told correction officers he used a torn bed sheet to strangle Boone while he slept. The documents also say that while Boone was unconscious, but still breathing, Gaines filled a plastic cup with toilet water and poured it over Boone’s face multiple times in an attempt to drown him. Gaines then used the torn bed sheet to strangle Boone a second time, documents say, and he then slammed Boone’s head into the concrete floor several times.
Then, as Boone laid on the floor, the documents state, Gaines stomped on Boone’s head until he thought he was dead.
Court documents also allege that on Oct. 2 Gaines assaulted another inmate named James Colman by choking him unconscious and attempting to drown him in a slop sink.
Gaines is charged with murder in connection with Boone’s death; he is also charged with aggravated assault and conspiracy in connection with the Oct. 2 incident.
Boone was in jail awaiting trial on charges of vehicular homicide in the June 2013 death of Jamere Cullers, 22, of Trenton who was a passenger in a car driven by Boone that hit a utility pole in the 100 block of Pennington Avenue in Trenton. The impact broke the pole off causing it to fall on the vehicle hitting Cullers and killing him.