Killer pleads guilty to ambushing victim in 2012 slaying

TRENTON — An ambush killer who beat up a corrections officer when he landed in jail plead guilty today in a deal slating him for 20 years in prison.
Douglas Battle, 23, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter for gunning down convicted killer Wilfredo “Murder Marty’’ Rivera, 32, on Oakland Street in the West Ward on June 23, 2012.

He also pleaded guilty to assaulting a corrections officer and got five years in prison for that. But under the plea deal worked out by the defense and Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Brian McCauley, the prison terms will be permitted to run at the same time, “concurrently’’ in legal jargon.
The guilty plea was made before Mercer Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier, who set the sentencing for Oct. 23.
Battle initially was charged with first-degree homicide because he allegedly laid in wait for “Murder Marty’’ to approached, then jumped from the dark and pumped several bullets into the victim.