Paid in blood: New Jersey man gets life without parole for orchestrating father’s murder

[rangerrebew]

Paid in blood: New Jersey man gets life without parole for orchestrating father’s murder
Story by Maria Hernandez • 22h

A Brick Township man who hired a hitman to kill his own father will spend the rest of his life behind bars, a judge ruled this week.

On January 8, 2026, the Honorable Guy P. Ryan sentenced Mark J. Austin, 34, to life in New Jersey State Prison without the possibility of parole. The sentence follows a guilty verdict delivered last October for the 2019 murder of his father, Mark Richard Austin.
 
“This sentence underscores the calculated and merciless nature of Austin’s crimes,” Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said in a statement following the hearing. “By orchestrating the murder of his own father, Austin forfeited any right to now ask the Court for mercy.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/paid-in-blood-new-jersey-man-gets-life-without-parole-for-orchestrating-father-s-murder/ar-AA1TX1Mf?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6963953f743943a18caaa20bf0368b90&ei=107

[rangerrebew]

I've seen a lot more heinous murders get much lighter sentences.  Being uber liberal New Jersey, the family weren't republicans by any chance?

[Fishrrman]