Prosecutor: 53-Year-Old Man Gets 50 Years for Wife’s 2022 Murder

A Forked River man has been sentenced to 50 years in state prison for the 2022 strangulation murder of his wife after an argument and abandonment of her body on the side of the road in Ocean Township, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced on Friday.

Jeremy B. Cruz, 53, of Forked River was sentenced to the half century in prison on a charge of first-degree murder on Tuesday, Sept. 10, before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley. Cruz must serve a minimum of 85 percent of that sentence before the possibility of parole in accordance with New Jersey’s No Early Release Act (NERA).

Cruz was found guilty following a trial before Judge O’Malley on Wednesday, April 24.

The case background …

Just after 1 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022, a woman who appeared to have sustained severe injuries was observed by a concerned motorist on Colonial Avenue, near the intersection with Asbury Avenue in Ocean Township. Upon responding, police found the victim, identified as 51-year-old Dawn C. Cruz, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

At approximately the same time, Jeremy Cruz turned himself in to authorities at Berkeley Township Police Department headquarters in Ocean County.

A joint investigation by members of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, Ocean Township Police Department, Asbury Park Police Department, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, and Berkeley Township Police Department led to the murder charge.

Cruz was indicted in January of 2023. At trial, the state disproved the defendant’s intoxication defense, leading to the conviction.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office