Robert Battle
Former EC City Councilman Robert Battle pleads guilty to murder
Contributed By:The 411 News
Drug trafficking, murder charges didn't stick as voters re-elected him
The Lake County Prosecutor’s Office announced today that former East Chicago City Councilman Robert Battle entered a guilty plea for the death of Reimundo ‘Rey’ Camarillo.
Battle’s journey from city councilman to confessed murderer began on October 14, 2015 when Prosecutor Bernard Carter announced the 3rd District Councilman would face murder charges in the death of Camarillo. Two days earlier, Camarillo had been found in an East Chicago alley, dead from a gunshot wound.
Battle and Camarillo lived a block apart on Euclid Street, in the Harbor section of East Chicago.
Although Battle claimed self-defense when he surrendered, he was denied bail and has been detained in the Lake County Jail since. The councilman told Lake County prosecutors the shooting evolved from a dispute over drugs.
As soon as the murder charges were filed, the federal prosecutor in northwest Indiana announced drug trafficking charges against the councilman.
According to the federal court affidavit, the U.S. DEA and a Lake County drug task force had been investigating Battle since April 2015, using a tap on his cell phone and a GPS tracking device on his car.
Battle was stopped and searched in his vehicle on September 23, 2015 in Porter County. Indiana State Troopers found 73 grams of marijuana and a bag in the trunk with $100,700 in cash.
That same day investigators had traced him to and from a house in Flint, MI that was known to be the residence of a cocaine dealer.
Battle ran unopposed in the November 2015 General Election and East Chicago voters returned him to office, although he was in the county jail. It was not until May 2016 when the East Chicago City Council removed him from office.
Story Posted:06/18/2018
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