2 due in N.J. court on murder-for-hire charges

    A Philadelphia auto shop owner and one of his employees are charged with orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot in New Jersey.

    Ronald Galati and Jerome Johnson are scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday in federal court in Camden.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Galati, owner of American Collision & Automotive Center in Philadelphia, and Johnson hired two other men to kill the unidentified target. Officials say Ronald Walker of Philadelphia and Alvin Matthews of Brookhaven, Pa., shot the victim in Atlantic City last November. He survived the shooting.

    Galati and Johnson face murder-for-hire, conspiracy and weapons charges. Walker and Matthews pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and weapons offenses and are to be sentenced in June.

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    Murder for hire carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

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