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Trial

Police & Fire
Wood-Ridge Man Convicted Again Of Murdering, Torching East Rutherford Grandmother Wood-Ridge Man Convicted Again Of Murdering, Torching East Rutherford Grandmother
Wood-Ridge Man Convicted Again Of Murdering, Torching East Rutherford Grandmother 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Questionable DNA evidence found under the fingernails of a 70-year-old Bergen County woman bludgeoned and burned in her home may have gotten her killer a new trial, but it didn't change the outcome. For a second time, a jury in Hackensack convicted Daniel Rochat on Wednesday of all charges in the brutal September 2012 slaying of real estate agent Barbara Vernieri in her East Rutherford home. Rochat, 48, of Wood-Ridge was originally convicted in June 2017 of beating Vernieri, then pouring gasoline on her and around her home before setting it on fire to cover up the crime scene. Pros…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Hudson Pair Quickly Take Guilty Pleas After Jury Convicts Getaway Driver In Bergen Drug Killing Hudson Pair Quickly Take Guilty Pleas After Jury Convicts Getaway Driver In Bergen Drug Killing
Hudson Pair Quickly Take Guilty Pleas After Jury Convicts Getaway Driver In Bergen Drug Killing UPDATE: Two men charged with the cold-blooded killing of a Fairview man during an armed robbery at his apartment four years ago have taken plea deals not even three weeks after their getaway driver was convicted at a trial. Carlos Burgos of Jersey City and Raul Torres of North Bergen, both 23, took the same route as the plan’s mastermind, Lexie Burke of Jersey City, who pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter last year in the June 2019 shooting death of David Duque-Soto. Both men, like Burke, were originally charged with felony murder. Like him, they opted to plead guilty to lesser charg…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Franklin Lakes Driver Indicted In Teaneck T-Bone Crash That Killed Bergenfield Great Grandpa Franklin Lakes Driver Indicted In Teaneck T-Bone Crash That Killed Bergenfield Great Grandpa
Franklin Lakes Driver Indicted In Teaneck T-Bone Crash That Killed Bergenfield Great Grandpa UPDATE: Bergenfield great-grandfather Albert Schnellbacher would’ve celebrated both his 93rd birthday and his 66th wedding anniversary along with his wife and family on Saturday, March 4. Instead, his loved ones are preparing for what could be the trial of a Franklin Lakes businessman who a grand jury said was responsible for killing the family patriarch in a car crash in Teaneck last summer. The grand jury in Hackensack returned an indictment this past week charging Scott Lieberman, 61, with recklessly causing Schnellbacher’s death, family members said. If convicted, Lieberman could face …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Jurors Convict Paterson Senior Of Repeatedly Sexually Assaulting Girl, 10 Jurors Convict Paterson Senior Of Repeatedly Sexually Assaulting Girl, 10
Jurors Convict Paterson Senior Of Repeatedly Sexually Assaulting Girl, 10 Jurors in Paterson convicted a 66-year-old Ecuadorian national of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl. Julio Largo-Veletanga has remained jailed since city police seized him in May 2020. Detectives from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office said they then interviewed multiple witnesses, including the girl. She “reported being sexually abused by Mr. Largo-Veletanga on multiple occasions between February 2020 and May 2020 at her home in Paterson,” Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes said. All told, there were no fewer than four incidents in the three-month span, inves…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Son, 24, Gets Prison Time For Slaying Parents, Torching Their Central Jersey Home: Prosecutor Son, 24, Gets Prison Time For Slaying Parents, Torching Their Central Jersey Home: Prosecutor
Son, 24, Gets Prison Time For Slaying Parents, Torching Their Central Jersey Home: Prosecutor A 24-year-old man from Middlesex County has been sentenced to 70 years in New Jersey State Prison for the fiery murders of his parents and another man, authorities announced. 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 extinguis…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
UPS Driver Used Job To Creepily Stalk Victims In PA: Authorities UPS Driver Used Job To Creepily Stalk Victims In PA: Authorities
UPS Driver Used Job To Creepily Stalk Victims In PA: Authorities A 52-year-old Pennsylvania man was sentenced to time behind bars in part for using his job as a UPS driver to stalk his victims in a disturbing way, authorities said. Thomas F. Wainman Jr., of Lititz, was found guilty by a jury of stalking his neighbors in multiple incidents spanning from May to December 2020, according to a release by the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office. Wainman shined spotlights into the victim’s home, peered through their windows, watched them while they were out at their pool, and followed the victims after seeing them at a gas station, the DA's Office …

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
North Jersey Driver Who Thought He Hit Deer Found Guilty In Hit-Run Death Of 12-Year-Old Boy North Jersey Driver Who Thought He Hit Deer Found Guilty In Hit-Run Death Of 12-Year-Old Boy
North Jersey Driver Who Thought He Hit Deer Found Guilty In Hit-Run Death Of 12-Year-Old Boy A North Jersey man who apparently thought he hit a deer when he actually struck and killed a 12-year-old boy in 2019 has been found guilty in the child's death, authorities announced. A Union County jury found 39-year-old Jose Marrero guilty on charges relating to the Summer 2019 death of Jeremy Maraj in Union, Prosecutor William A. Daniel said. The jury deliberated for less than an hour last Friday after a week-long trial for Marrero — currently of Kearny and previously of Lake Hiawatha — before returning its verdict. Marrero was driving his work van, a 2016 Nissan NV200, when h…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
Serial NJ Bank Robber Who Served 18 Years Headed Back To Fed Pen For At Least 16 More Serial NJ Bank Robber Who Served 18 Years Headed Back To Fed Pen For At Least 16 More
Serial NJ Bank Robber Who Served 18 Years Headed Back To Fed Pen For At Least 16 More A convicted bank robber from Camden who just couldn’t stop is headed back to federal prison for more than 16 years. Anthony L. Livingston, 50, robbed a PNC Bank in Gloucester Township on July 14, 2018 (photos above), a day after he’d been released after serving more than 18 years in federal prison for robbing eight South Jersey banks in 2000 and 2001, authorities said. Ten days after the Gloucester holdup, Livingston tried to recruit a homeless man to rob another PNC branch, this one in Stratford, they said. Livingston “instructed the man on how to rob the bank, gave him a demand note to s…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Pennsylvania Lawyer With 'To-Do List' For Killing US Senators Has Been Disbarred Pennsylvania Lawyer With 'To-Do List' For Killing US Senators Has Been Disbarred
Pennsylvania Lawyer With 'To-Do List' For Killing US Senators Has Been Disbarred A Pennsylvania lawyer has been disbarred after police found a "to-do list" of people to murder including US Senators, according to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Kenelm L. Shirk III, 71, was angry about the results of the 2020 presidential election so he allegedly made a “to-do list” of people to murder in the US government, loaded his car up with firearms and ammunition and went to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 21, 2021, states the US DOJ. Shirk allegedly threatened to kill his wife as well as and planned a "suicide by cop" if confronted by law enforcement, accor…

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by Jillian Pikora
Police & Fire
2nd Man Sentenced For South Jersey Murder Of Sleeping Woman On Blueberry Farm 2nd Man Sentenced For South Jersey Murder Of Sleeping Woman On Blueberry Farm
2nd Man Sentenced For South Jersey Murder Of Sleeping Woman On Blueberry Farm A second man convicted of killing a sleeping woman during a home invasion at a South Jersey blueberry farm has been sentenced to prison, authorities announced. Tyler Dralle, 23, of Vineland, was given an aggregate sentence of 40 years in prison subject to the No Early Release Act on Dec. 18, Acting Camden County Prosecutor Jill S. Mayer and Winslow Township Police Chief George Smith.  Kwamere Benjamin, 20, of New Castle, Delaware, was sentenced to 38 years in prison two weeks ago. Dralle and Benjamin entered a home on the 700 block of Bairdmore Avenue in Winslow Township around 3…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
Feds: New Mob Regime Ran Sports Bets, Extorted Victims, Sold Drugs From Philly To Jersey Shore Feds: New Mob Regime Ran Sports Bets, Extorted Victims, Sold Drugs From Philly To Jersey Shore
Feds: New Mob Regime Ran Sports Bets, Extorted Victims, Sold Drugs From Philly To Jersey Shore The mob didn't disappear from Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore after former leaders Joseph Ligambi and Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino were sent to prison, federal authorities revealed Monday. Over the past five years, in fact, new leadership of the Philly and Atlantic City La Cosa Nostra beefed up the ranks, commanding illegal sports gambling, extorting victims through loansharking, selling cocaine, heroin and opioids -- even conspiring to kidnap a drug dealer who sold them bad dope, they said. Fifteen reputed mobsters and associates of the organized crime family were charged in a …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Orange Man Found Guilty Of Killing Three Women: Report Orange Man Found Guilty Of Killing Three Women: Report
Orange Man Found Guilty Of Killing Three Women: Report A jury in Essex County Thursday convicted Khalil Wheeler-Weaver of slaying three women and brutally attacking a fourth, NJ.com reported.  Wheeler-Weaver, a 23-year-old from Orange, was found guilty on all 11 counts following a two-month trial, including desecrating human remains and aggravated sexual assault. Jurors took about three hours to convict him of the murders of Sarah Butler, 20, Robin West, 19, and Joanne Brown, 33, and of assaulting the fourth woman.  The surviving victim met Wheeler-Weaver at a motel room in Elizabeth, where he beat, handcuffed and sexually assaul…

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
No Parole For 68 Years For Double-Murderer In 'RHONJ' Paterson Car Torching No Parole For 68 Years For Double-Murderer In 'RHONJ' Paterson Car Torching
No Parole For 68 Years For Double-Murderer In 'Rhonj' Paterson Car Torching Because he and a partner shot two robbery victims dead, then torched their bodies in a car owned by "Real Housewives of New Jersey" guest Kim DePaola, a Paterson man must turn 96 years old before even having a shot at parole. Superior Court Judge Adam E. Jacobs issued what amounts to a lifetime prison sentence for Gerry Thomas on Friday for the felony murders of Aaron Anderson, 27, and 25-year-old Anthony Vega Jr. on March 17, 2017. Jurors convicted Thomas in March following a two-week trial. Jacobs sentenced him in Paterson to 40 years back-to-back for committing each murder dur…

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by Jerry DeMarco