Jury rejects intoxication defense and convicts Lacey man of murder in wife's strangulation

FREEHOLD A Monmouth County jury took less than two hours Wednesday to reject a Lacey man's intoxication defense and find him guilty of murdering his wife in 2022.

The jury reached its verdict against Jeremy Cruz, 53, at 3:44 p.m. and announced it at 4 p.m. The panel began deliberating about 2 p.m.

The sole question jurors had to consider was whether Cruz intended to kill his wife, Dawn, 51, on Oct. 30, 2022; he surrendered to police the same day and confessed to strangling her and leaving her body on the side of the road in Ocean Township.

The murder occurred during an argument while the couple was returning home from seeing their oldest son's band play a gig at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park.

The couple's two sons sat in the front row of the courtroom, surrounded by family and friends, to hear the verdict. They declined to comment afterward. There was no outward display of emotion from them or their father when the verdict was announced.

Cruz, stood trial before Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley,  who scheduled his sentencing for Aug. 14.

Cruz faces a minimum of 30 years in prison without the possibility of release on parole up to life in prison.

During summations Wednesday morning, defense attorney Adam Mitchell told jurors they need only consider one question, whether Cruz intended to kill his wife.

Mitchell said Cruz was too intoxicated to form that intent when he fatally assaulted her.

"Jeremy Cruz killed his wife, yes, but he didn't do it on purpose and he didn't mean to do it," Mitchell told the jury.

Caitlyn Sidley, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, told the jury intoxication is only a valid defense under the law if it strips a person of his or her faculties.

"It means that you need to decide that the five beers that man had made him incapable of forming intent," Sidley said, describing Cruz as five-foot-11 and 220 pounds at the time he killed his wife of 26 years.

"The state does not need to prove to you that this defendant was sober," Sidley told the jury.

Cruz took the witness stand Tuesday and testified he was drunk that night. He testified he and his wife had been arguing all night, and she continued yelling at him in the car once they left Asbury Lanes.  He testified he pulled over on Colonial Road in Ocean Township because he couldn't see or breathe, and that he reached over and choked his wife until she passed out after learning she was having an affair. He testified he pulled her out of the car, and the two began choking each other, until she passed out again and fell.

Cruz told the jury he then checked his wife's vital signs and administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but realized she was dead.

"I never wanted to kill her," Cruz told the jury. "I loved her."

After that, Cruz made a series of phone calls, including to both his sons, and his younger son, Jonah, was so concerned, he called police to alert them to a drunk driver on the road, Mitchell told the jury in his summation.

Cruz's oldest son, Brandon, testified his father was almost slurring his words when he left the gig at Asbury Lanes that night, Mitchell said.

Sidley told  the jury that Brandon Cruz testified his father wasn't drunk when he left the gig, and if he had been, he wouldn't have let his mother get in the car with him.

Cruz told detectives in his recorded confession, "I can't blame the alcohol," Sidley said.

"You heard he had five regular-sized beers, a little over a beer and a half an hour," Sidley said in her summation. "Five beers over three hours, is that enough to excuse someone for murder, to lose that intent?" Sidley asked.

Sidley said Cruz made a series of decisions that night that showed he was not devoid of his faculties, including paying his bar tab and adding a 25 percent tip.

"He did math," the assistant prosecutor said.

He engaged in a long text-message exchange with his wife, showing he was capable of reading, writing and spelling, Sidley said.

"He managed to find all the letters to 'f--- you' and send it, she said.

Cruz also managed to make a series of phone calls without a hands-free phone system while driving on the Garden State Parkway, and, he had the wherewithal to inform Berkeley Township police before he arrived at their headquarters to surrender to tell them that he wasn't armed and would be placing his hands on top of his car once he got there, Sidley said.

She reminded the jury that Cruz for the first time Tuesday claimed he tried to save his wife's life. That also was the first time he said his wife told him she was having an affair, Sidley said.

"You haven't heard any evidence of this affair other than what he said," Sidley told the jury.  "Dawn wasn't here. She can't tell you because he silenced her."

Even if the victim was having an affair, despite there being nothing to suggest that, "Doesn't that just give him more motive?" Sidley asked.

"Intent can be formed in an instant," the assistant prosecutor said. "It doesn't have to be a long, drawn-out plan. In this case, the defendant's intent was clear."

Also representing the state at trial was Assistant Prosecutor Carey Huff. Assisting in the defense was defense attorney Deven Ferrara.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lacey man convicted of murdering wife on way home from son's music gig