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Mentally ill veteran ‘baked to death’ in cell

A homeless ex-Marine who slipped into a Harlem housing-project stairwell for a warm place to sleep ended up roasting to death in a Rikers Island jail cell after his trespassing arrest.

Jerome Murdough, 56, was arrested on Feb. 7 and held in lieu of $2,500 bail, despite the minor charge.

“The judge probably thought he was doing him a favor, giving him a warm place to sleep,” one law-enforcement source said.

Instead, Murdough wound up in a cell with “unusually high temperatures,” said Acting Corrections Commissioner Mark Cranston.

He was found dead in his cell on Feb. 15.

The DOC is investigating whether guards checked Murdough as often as they were required for inmates with mental-health issues — and why no one reported the unbearable heat before the veteran’s tragic death.