A New Jersey man who strangled his wife to death before dumping her body on the side of a road in Ocean Township has been sentenced to 50 years in state prison, officials announced Friday.
Jeremy B. Cruz, 53, of Forked River, was convicted of first-degree murder in the October 2022 killing of 51-year-old Dawn C. Cruz.
The “senseless” crime followed a “simple argument” between Cruz and his wife, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said.
Cruz was found guilty by a jury earlier this year and was sentenced Tuesday by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley.
He will have to serve 85% of his sentence — or 42 years and six months — before he can be eligible for parole, in accordance with New Jersey’s No Early Release Act (NERA).
Prosecutors say the victim was first spotted by a motorist on Colonial Ave. near Asbury Ave. in the early hours of Oct. 30, 2022.
Ocean Township Police responded to the area and located the victim. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Around that same time, Cruz turned himself in to Berkeley police.
During his trial, defense lawyers claimed he was too intoxicated to make a decision to kill his wife.
Prosecutors, however, disproved the intoxication defense, noting he was conscious enough to call police to turn himself in — which led to his conviction.
On April 24, 2024, a Monmouth County jury found Cruz guilty of murdering his wife after less than two hours of deliberation, the Asbury Park Press reported.
Dawn McCutcheon Cruz is described in an online obituary as a “kind, compassionate person with a great sense of humor [who] loved being home with her family and her adopted pets.”
The couple shared two sons.
