Ocean County , NJ History

from New Jersey Mirror 16 Jul 1936 The Court of Pardons having commuted the death sentences of Jacob Ciemiengo and George Hildebrand, who slew Herman Eilers, a Florence farmer, in cold blood, the question arises, what sort of murder demands the exaction of the extreme penalty

From the New Jersey Mirror 19 Jun 1907 The trial of Caleb Rogers, Theodore Wells and Walter Simons, for the killing of David Beebe, at Chairville, on April 17, has been set down for September 11, that date having been agreed upon after Judge Horner had consulted the lawyers interested in the case. This trial was originally set down for to-day, but the important engagements of Eckard P. Budd, one of the counsel, resulted in a change being made.

from the New Jersey Mirror 8 May 1907: The jury empaneled by Coroner Seeds to investigate the killing of David Beebe, at Chairville, the previous Saturday night , heard the evidence presented at the inquest at Medford on Friday, and after brief deliberation held Caleb Rogers, Theodore Wells and Walter Simons, three of the seven suspected men taken from the county jail to Medford by Deputy Sheriff Fleetwood to give testimony before the coroner, if they so desired. Harvey Reeves, another one of the men arrested on suspicion of having been implicated in the killing, was not held for his connection with Beebe's death, but was committed to jail in default of $350 bail on the charge of carrying a concealed deadly weapon. There has been a determined effort on the part of the court to break up the practice so common among a certain class of young men, of carrying revolvers, and it is possible that a term in prison awaits young Reeves, even though he escaped detention on the more serious

Asbury Park Press 21 Apr 1993 A Superior Court jury began deliberations yesterday on whether a Toms River man purposely killed a Lakewood prostitute by hitting her with his car following a dispute about money. James A. Grove, 67, is charged with murder and aggravated assault in the 1990 death of Luceita Christina Streeter. The public defender for Grove told the jury during closing remarks in Toms River yesterday that the Union Street resident should be acquitted because the state's witnesses are not credible and there is no physical evidence linking him to the death of Streeter. The witness who testified she observed the murder, Diane Marshall, had changed her account several times, and her stories were inconsistent with the evidence, James Pinchak told the jury. Marshall testified she called the house Grove shared with a friend, Bruce Veeder, and asked for a ride from Lakewood so she could visit another friend of Veeder's who was in jail. After Grove got her in the early m

Asbury Park Press 19 Apr 1990 The state Supreme Court Wednesday overturned a death sentence for a 27-year-old convicted murderer from Lakewood who killed a school teacher in 1985 by stabbing her 53 times. In returning the case to the lower courts for a possible retrial, the high court ruled 7-0 that defendant Kevin Jackson, though he confessed to the crime, had never acknowledged during earlier trials that he had "purposely or knowingly" caused the death of 51-year-old Meredith Levithan of Brick Township on Sept. 9, 1985. She was his neighbor. "This ruling may strike some as hyper-technical," says a 12-page opinion released Wednesday. "After all, there is no danger here that we are about to execute an innocent man. Defendant has never denied that he murdered the victim," the judges said. "The question, however, is not whether defendant is in any sense 'innocent,' but whether, under our law, he deserves the death penalty. His appeal is tha

from New Jersey Mirror 20 Mar 1936: The Court of Errors and Appeals, in a decision handed down in Trenton on Thursday, refused to grant a new trial to Jacob Ciemiengo, 16, and George A. Hildebrand, 26, convicted of first degree murder of Herman Eiler, Florence township poultry farmer. A Burlington county jury brough(t) in the verdict that was appealed to the high court. The upholding of the conviction of Ciemiengo and Hildebrand leaves only one avenue of escape from electrocution. That is the Court of Pardons. The decision affirming the conviction of the pair was written by Supreme Court Justice Joseph L. Bodine. The court refused to uphold the contention of the defense that the examination of two witnesses by the state, Arthur Therien and John Malseed, was improper. The court said there was abundant evidence to uphold the ruling of the trial court that the confessions made were voluntary. It was stated in the decision that both confessed they had gone to Eiler's home to rob him