TOMS RIVER The state offered plea deals Friday to a Seaside Heights woman accused of murdering a Toms River man and chopping up his body, and one of three codefendants accused of helping her to dismember or dispose of the victim's remains.
At a pair of arraignments before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan, an assistant Ocean County prosecutor extended an offer to Elizabeth Mascarelli, 29, to plead guilty to the murder of 56-year-old Kelly Rollason in exchange for a recommendation she be sentenced to 30 years in prison without the possibility of early release on parole.
The assistant prosecutor, Kristin Pressman, also extended an offer to Jared Krysiak, 34, of Brick, to plead guilty to desecrating Rollason's remains in exchange for a recommendation he be sentenced to eight years in prison with no period of parole ineligibility.
Attorneys for Mascarelli and Krysiak entered not-guilty pleas on behalf of their clients. The defendants' next court appearances are scheduled for Dec. 16.
Pressman and defense attorneys Glenn Kassman, for Mascarelli, and Danny Ljungberg, for Krysiak, said they are still awaiting the autopsy report on Rollason.
An indictment handed up last week charged Mascarelli with Rollason's murder on or about July 3, and conspiracy to commit the murder.
The indictment also charged Mascarelli, Krysiak, and two others, Danielle Bolstad, 42, of Barnegat and Jared Palumbo, 36, of Manchester, with hindering apprehension and with the desecration of Rollason's remains. Authorities allege Mascarelli and her codefendants all helped to dismember the victim's body or dispose of his remains in a wooded area in Jackson.
Bolstad and Palumbo are scheduled for arraignments on Nov. 15.
Mascarelli also is charged in the indictment with a variety of weapons offenses related to two handguns found in Rollason's house and a hatchet believed to be the instrument used to dismember him.
The person Mascarelli is accused of conspiring with to commit Rollason's murder was Maxwell Johnston, a fugitive who was sought in connection with the murder of his ex-girlfriend in Manchester on June 27.
It was Johnston's apprehension that Mascarelli and her codefendants are accused of hindering; authorities allege they harbored Johnston in Rollason's home on Ravenswood Drive, knowing he was wanted for murder.
Johnston, 35, of Manchester, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a standoff at Rollason's home on July 5 - two days after Rollason's murder - when police went there to arrest him in the shooting death of ex-girlfriend Gabriella Caroleo, 25, of Seaside Heights.
Krysiak, Bolstad and Palumbo emerged from the home early on in the standoff, and Mascarelli came out hours later.
Authorities didn't become aware of Rollason's death until July 11, when they examined Mascarelli's cell phone and discovered photos of the victim, dead, with his legs amputated from his torso, and Mascarelli holding a hatchet that was lodged in his chest.
Mascarelli at that time was not charged with murder because authorities initially believed it was Johnston who was responsible for Rollason's death, authorities said.
But, in announcing the indictment last week, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said a thorough investigation revealed it was Mascarelli who murdered Rollason.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at [email protected].