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Former Lindenwold resident Kenneth Saal, 33, previously pleaded guilty to murder, burglary and stalking, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone.
The sentence was in connection with the murder of co-worker Carolyn Byington, 26, of Plainsboro.
During his guilty plea, Saal stated that in April 2019 he copied the victim’s house key while she was at work and used the key to enter her apartment on multiple days in the following months. He recounted how he planted hidden surveillance cameras to record her in her home without her knowledge. Saal then described how he brutally murdered the victim on June 10, 2019, when she came home unexpectedly and discovered him in her home, Ciccone said.
Saal admitted that in an effort to derail his trial which was originally scheduled to commence on Dec. 5, 2022, he conspired to hire someone to commit a copycat murder to make it look like the true killer of Byington had not yet been apprehended. He also acknowledged that as an alternative, he conspired to have one of two witnesses who were going to testify at his upcoming trial killed, and have their murder staged as a suicide with a note claiming responsibility for Byington’s murder, Ciccone said.
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