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The suspect was once featured on "America's Most Wanted," wrote a book called "Inabsentia," and has served at least nine years in New Jersey State Prison, according to earlier news accounts.
Angelo Grenci was charged with attempted murder on Monday for a violent fight in Berkeley Township, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer and Berkeley Township Police Chief Karin DiMichele.
Berkeley and Toms River police were called to Community Medical Center about 7 p.m. on Saturday where they found Carlton Williams, 50, of Seaside Heights, with a stab wound to his neck, authorities said.
Williams was subsequently flown to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick where he remained in critical condition on Tuesday.
An investigation found that Grenci had stabbed Williams during a fight near Magnolia Avenue in the Manitou Park section of the township, Billhimer and DiMichele.said.
Authorities executed a warranted search at Grenci’s residence in Berkeley Township on Monday. Grenci was processed at Berkeley Township Police Headquarters and was being held in the Ocean County Jail pending a detention hearing.
“Each and every officer and detective involved in this investigation acted quickly and professionally in solving this horrendous crime," Billhimer said. "Through their tenacity and dedication, a very dangerous individual is now off the streets."
Grenci was accused of breaking beer bottles over the heads of two men and later trying to run one of them over with a car. He was convicted at a trial he didn't attend in 2003, news reports said.
Grenci remained at large until 2005, when "America's Most Wanted" aired a segment about him. A tip from a viewer led to his arrest in Mexico. He was sentenced to 24 years in state prison, which was reduced upon appeal.
This subsequent article by the Asbury Park Press reported that Grenci was arrested in connection with a bank robbery in Toms River in November 2015.
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