Trials
A Monmouth County judge sentenced Jordan Vilcatoma-Correjo to life plus 10 years for murdering Sonia Gonzales.
Asbury Park Press, nj.com, NJ 101.5, and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office reported that on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2026, Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley sentenced Jordan J. Vilcatoma-Correjo, 32, of Edison, to life in prison plus 10 years for the first-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend Sonia Gonzales, 26, also of Edison. He was also convicted of second-degree disturbing human remains. The Asbury Park Press reported the judge called him "a brute" after what coverage described as a prolonged beating.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
The life-plus-10 sentence closes the trial phase on the murder conviction. A Monmouth County jury rejected his passion-provocation defense in June. Atlantic Highlands officers found Gonzales' body in the backseat of his Honda Accord on June 10, 2022.
Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley sentenced Jordan J. Vilcatoma-Correjo, 32, of Edison, New Jersey, on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2026, to life in prison plus 10 years for the first-degree murder of Sonia Gonzales, 26, also of Edison, according to coverage by the Asbury Park Press, nj.com, NJ 101.5, and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office. He was also convicted of second-degree disturbing human remains. The Asbury Park Press reported that the judge called him "a brute" in imposing the sentence after what reporting described as a prolonged beating.
On the morning of June 10, 2022, Atlantic Highlands police responding near Asbury Avenue between Navesink and Grand avenues found Gonzales' body in the backseat of a Honda Accord, covered in garbage bags, missing an eye, and showing signs of strangulation and blunt-force trauma, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and NJ 101.5 reported. Family members helped locate Vilcatoma-Correjo using a third-party phone app, according to an affidavit described in NJ 101.5 coverage. He was taken into custody at the scene.
A Monmouth County Superior Court jury found him guilty around June 5, 2026, after a brief trial that began in late May, NJ 101.5 and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office reported. Assistant Prosecutors Caitlin Sidley and Danielle Zanzuccki argued he had become increasingly obsessive, aggressive, and threatening after the breakup, and that Gonzales had changed her phone number and daily routine to avoid him. The jury rejected the defense's passion-provocation argument. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Vilcatoma-Correjo was presumed innocent through trial; the June verdicts and Wednesday's sentence are the court's judgment on those counts.
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