MAYS LANDING – A 29 year-old Galloway Township man was sentenced on Dec. 6, in the bludgeoning death of his father in April 2015, Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner announced.
Officials say James Sopuch Jr. was sentenced to 30 years in New Jersey state prison with an 85% period of parole ineligibility subject to the No Early Release Act for aggravated manslaughter in the fatal beating of his father with two baseball bats.
On Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2018, Sopuch, Jr. pleaded guilty before Judge Patricia M. Wild, J.S.C to Aggravated Manslaughter in the killing of his father, 60 year-old James Sopuch, Sr. Sopuch Jr., will serve 30 years in New Jersey State Prison with an 85% period of parole ineligibility, subject to the No Early Release Act (NERA).
Sopuch, Sr. was found dead in his home at 96 Trotters Lane in Galloway Township, on April 25, 2015. In a cooperative investigation by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and Galloway Township Police Department secured witness statements and collected evidence, which ultimately led to the arrest of the victim’s only son, James Sopuch, Jr., age 29, as the suspect in his father’s death.
Evidence determined that Sopuch Jr., brutally beat his father to death with two separate baseball bats and an autopsy revealed that the victim died of blunt force trauma to his head, resulting in his death.