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Jaree Kitchen, of Jamesburg, was sentenced on Friday, Oct. 28 by Judge Thomas J. Buck in the murder of his parents and another man, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone.
On Nov. 6, 2019, at 3:19 a.m., Jamesburg police responded to 7 Sheridan St. for a house fire.
Police observed visible flames exiting the structure of the house. The Jamesburg Fire Department arrived on scene and extinguished the fire.
A subsequent investigation conducted by Sergeant Kevin Wilson, Detective Sergeant Jason Muller and Detective Jim Dennis of the Jamesburg Police Department and Sergeant Deon McCall of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, found that Kitchen had recently returned to Jamesburg from Georgia to live with his father, Clifford Kitchen Jr., but soon after his arrival the father and son began having significant issues, Ciccone said.
This erupted into a physical altercation that resulted in Jaree Kitchen fatally stabbing both his father and another resident of the home, Gregory Fisher to death on Nov. 4, 2019, Ciccone said.
On November 6, 2019, in an effort to destroy and cover up the murders that occurred within the home, Jaree Kitchen set the residence on fire, she said.
Kitchen was subsequently indicted for two counts of first-degree murder, second-degree aggravated arson, two counts second-degree desecrating human remains, two counts of third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, two counts of fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and two counts of fourth-degree tampering with evidence.
Kitchen was convicted by a jury on June 1, 2022.
Kitchen was sentenced to 60 years pursuant to the No Early Release Act for the two counts of murder and 10 years for the charge of aggravated arson, to run consecutively, for a total of 70 years.
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