A New Jersey man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday, nearly ten years after murdering a New Jersey middle school teacher whose apartment he’d burglarized thinking it was someone else’s, PEOPLE confirms.
Jerry J. Spraudling, 41, was convicted of first-degree murder in March along with two other men in the 2009 killing Jonelle Melton, 33, who was found dead in her Neptune City apartment, according to a press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office.
Spraudling must serve nearly 64 years before becoming eligible for parole,
The two other murderers — Ebenezer Byrd, 39, and Gregory A. Jean-Baptiste, 30, both of Asbury Park — are awaiting sentencing. All three were also convicted of other crimes including first-degree robbery.
The trio killed Melton after realizing they were in the wrong apartment, according to prosecutors.The Asbury Park PressreportedMelton was beaten, stabbed multiple times and shot in the arm and in the head.
Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Matthew Bogner said during the defendants’ murder trial that the slaying was “about as brutal as it gets,” thePressreported.
ThePress, citing Bogner, previously reported that within a week of the murder, Fair, a Bloods street gang leader in Asbury Park, became a suspect, and that Byrd, Jean-Baptiste and Spaulding became suspects soon after. But authorities did not have enough evidence to bring charges until 2015.
Bogner credited the “persistence of the investigators, combined with the willingness of the witnesses to finally come forward.”
Prosecutors described Melton, who taught social studies at Red Bank Middle School, as a “beloved, veteran school teacher” who was active in the school and engaged with her students.
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Fair pleaded guilty in 2017 to conspiracy to commit burglary and has maintained he had nothing to do with the killing,NJ.com reports. He is serving 82 years in prison after being convicted of 78 crimes he committed in 2017, according to the prosecutor’s office.
PEOPLE’s was unable to immediately reach Spraudling’s attorney, Robert Ward, Byrd’s attorney, Paul Zager and Jean-Baptiste’s attorney, Mark Baily.
ThePresspreviously reportedthat Zager and Ward said the state had no physical evidence tying their clients to the crimes.The paper also reportedthat attorneys for Byrd and Jean-Baptiste said they would appeal the guilty verdict.
source: people.com
