FREEHOLD – A Neptune Township man was handed an extended state prison sentence on Friday for the 2011 murder of a man in the Asbury Park Village housing complex, announced Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Thaddeus Reevey, 23, was sentenced to 45 years in a New Jersey state prison by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Scully, after he was convicted by a jury in March following a three week trial. Reevey was convicted of first degree Murder and second degree Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose during the trial presided over by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge John R. Tassini (Ret.).

Judge Scully imposed the 45-year sentence on the Murder charge, subject to the provisions of the No Early Release Act (NERA) requiring Reevey to serve 85 percent of the sentence imposed before becoming eligible for release on parole. Scully also imposed a 6-year state prison term on the Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose charge, which will run concurrent to the 45-year prison term. The 6-year sentence carries a 3 and a half-year period of parole ineligibility, pursuant to the Graves Act requiring mandatory minimum sentences for certain firearms offenses.

At trial, it was established that at about 6:18 p.m. on November 8, 2011, officers from the Asbury Park Police Department were dispatched after receiving 911 telephone calls regarding a shooting to the area of Adams Street and Sylvan Way within the Asbury Park Village housing complex. Upon arrival, police located Eric Freeman, who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Freeman was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune Township, where he died at 6:58 p.m. His death was ruled a homicide by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Detectives from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and Asbury Park Police Department conducted a joint investigation into the homicide. During the course of the trial, testimony and evidence were presented establishing Reevey approached the victim and his friend brandishing a handgun before shooting Freeman three times from close range.

The case was prosecuted by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher J. Decker, the Director of the Office’s Major Crimes Bureau.
Reevey was represented by Allison Friedman, Esq. of Freehold.

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