Ocean County Prosecutor Brad Billhimer announced today that a Lakewood man has been sentenced to 30 years in state prison for an aggravated manslaughter incident that occurred in 2016.
On June 13, 2016, Lakewood police officers responded to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Lakewood and found a 23-year old man with a gunshot wound to his chest lying dead on the floor. Subsequent interviewing of witnesses and video footage of the incident showed that the assailant was Merrill Spencer, 39, of Lakewood.
Spencer was arrested by Lakewood police officers and charged with aggravated manslaughter, for which he was today sentenced by a judge to 30 years in prison. The sentence is subject to the terms of the No Early Release Act, meaning Spencer will have to serve at least 85% of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.