Kathy Pinna
Wife Charged in slaying of Bridgewater merchant
Arrested on drug charges, son of Green Brook shop owner details alleged murder plot.
Patricia Monsell wanted to find someone to kill her husband, police said, so she asked for help from the one person she though she could trust - her son. But 24-year-old Jason Monsell balked for months, taking the money his mother gave him earlier this year to hire a killer and spending it on drugs, Somerset County Prosecutor Way J. Forrest said. On Mary 20, tired of waiting, his mother picked up a gun, told her son, "Today is the day," and shot James F. Monsell three times in the head and once in the chest as he lay sleeping in the family's Bridgewater home, police said.
Patricia Monsell, 51, was charged Friday with murder in the death of her husband after police said the couple's son - caught a day earlier with a large amount of suspected heroin - spilled the story of his mother's alleged plot. Forrest said a pair of alert police officers on Thursday night found Jason Monsell in the parking lot of a Warren restaurant, Vincent's at the King George Inn on Mount Bethel Road, with 99 folds of suspected heroin on the passenger's seat of his vehicle.
Apparently fearful of a severe drug charge, Forrest said the younger Monsell volunteered the story of the collapsed murder-for-hire scheme that led to the death of his father, a businessman who owned Four Seasons Ski and Snowboarding Shop on Route 22 in Green Brook. Mother and son appeared separately in court Friday for a preliminary hearing in their cases. Jason Monsell is charged with third-degree possession of a controlled dangerous substance, while his mother is charged with murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Wearing Somerset County Jail khakis and handcuffed to another prisoner, Jason Monsell spoke only briefly, indicating he understood the charges against him and answering, "Yes, sir" when asked by Judge Paul W. Armstrong if he planned to obtain a lawyer. His bail was set at $10,000, with a 10% option. A few minutes later, Patricia Monsell was led into court. Appearing tired and flushed, she responded just once during her hearing, saying, "Yes, I do,' when Armstrong asked whether she has a passport. She was ordered to surrender the document, and bail was set at $1 million cash.
Sometime after 10:30 a.m. on March 10, according to the story Jason Monsell told police, Patricia Monsell asked him to kill his father. When he refused, she said she would do it herself. She told Jason Monsell to bring a power washer out of a shed at the family's Laurel Trail home in the Martinsville section of Bridgewater and start using it to mask the sound of gunshots.
"Defendant Jason Monsell exited the residence and, while the power washer was running, stated that he heard gunshots ring out from within the home," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. Afterward, police said Patricia Monsell took a shower, changed her clothes and drove to meet Jason and her daughter, Jennifer, 26, for a 3 p.m. showing of the movie "Taking Lives" at the Bridgewater Commons.
Setting up an alibi with her son for the time of the shooting via cell phone, Patricia Monsell then returned home, police said, and feigned horror at finding her husband shot to death. Forrest said at a news conference Fiday that Patricia Monsell, arrested at 5:50 a.m. Friday as she returned home, had long been a suspect in the death of her 52-year-old husband, though he refused to speculate on a motive. He also declined to say where she might have been returning from when she was taken into custody.
Shortly after the killing was discovered, he said, police asked whether they could perform a gun-residue test on her hands to determine whether she'd fired a weapon recently. She initially said she hadn't fired a gun, then changed her story to say she had been target shooting earlier in the day. But while the gun-residue test was positive, there was no evidence of target shooting in the snow-covered part of the township to which she led police, he said. "She took us to the area where she said she had done the shooting and we saw nothing - virgin snow", Forrest said.
However, Patricia Monsell's attorney, Thomas Pavics of Raritan Borough, said the state's case is weak, depending mainly on the gun-residue evidence and testimony from her son - who he pointed out might have concocted a story to save himself time in prison. "You can draw your own conclusion that he was arrested and then made the statements," Pavics said. "It seems strange to me that he's saying that when he's sitting there in the box charged with her. My guess is maybe he's the one they should be looking at."
Forrest said, however, that Jason Monsell had not received a plea deal as a result of his cooperation and would not rule out further charges against the son. "The case is still under investigation. Anything is possible" he said, noting detectives were searching the family home Friday afternoon for the second time. Though the Monsells had several guns in their home, the murder weapon still has not been recovered, Forrest said.
- The Courier-News (Bridgewater, New Jersey) May 15, 2004 on page one. By Chad Weihrauch.
Patricia Monsell wanted to find someone to kill her husband, police said, so she asked for help from the one person she though she could trust - her son. But 24-year-old Jason Monsell balked for months, taking the money his mother gave him earlier this year to hire a killer and spending it on drugs, Somerset County Prosecutor Way J. Forrest said. On Mary 20, tired of waiting, his mother picked up a gun, told her son, "Today is the day," and shot James F. Monsell three times in the head and once in the chest as he lay sleeping in the family's Bridgewater home, police said.
Patricia Monsell, 51, was charged Friday with murder in the death of her husband after police said the couple's son - caught a day earlier with a large amount of suspected heroin - spilled the story of his mother's alleged plot. Forrest said a pair of alert police officers on Thursday night found Jason Monsell in the parking lot of a Warren restaurant, Vincent's at the King George Inn on Mount Bethel Road, with 99 folds of suspected heroin on the passenger's seat of his vehicle.
Apparently fearful of a severe drug charge, Forrest said the younger Monsell volunteered the story of the collapsed murder-for-hire scheme that led to the death of his father, a businessman who owned Four Seasons Ski and Snowboarding Shop on Route 22 in Green Brook. Mother and son appeared separately in court Friday for a preliminary hearing in their cases. Jason Monsell is charged with third-degree possession of a controlled dangerous substance, while his mother is charged with murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Wearing Somerset County Jail khakis and handcuffed to another prisoner, Jason Monsell spoke only briefly, indicating he understood the charges against him and answering, "Yes, sir" when asked by Judge Paul W. Armstrong if he planned to obtain a lawyer. His bail was set at $10,000, with a 10% option. A few minutes later, Patricia Monsell was led into court. Appearing tired and flushed, she responded just once during her hearing, saying, "Yes, I do,' when Armstrong asked whether she has a passport. She was ordered to surrender the document, and bail was set at $1 million cash.
Sometime after 10:30 a.m. on March 10, according to the story Jason Monsell told police, Patricia Monsell asked him to kill his father. When he refused, she said she would do it herself. She told Jason Monsell to bring a power washer out of a shed at the family's Laurel Trail home in the Martinsville section of Bridgewater and start using it to mask the sound of gunshots.
"Defendant Jason Monsell exited the residence and, while the power washer was running, stated that he heard gunshots ring out from within the home," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. Afterward, police said Patricia Monsell took a shower, changed her clothes and drove to meet Jason and her daughter, Jennifer, 26, for a 3 p.m. showing of the movie "Taking Lives" at the Bridgewater Commons.
Setting up an alibi with her son for the time of the shooting via cell phone, Patricia Monsell then returned home, police said, and feigned horror at finding her husband shot to death. Forrest said at a news conference Fiday that Patricia Monsell, arrested at 5:50 a.m. Friday as she returned home, had long been a suspect in the death of her 52-year-old husband, though he refused to speculate on a motive. He also declined to say where she might have been returning from when she was taken into custody.
Shortly after the killing was discovered, he said, police asked whether they could perform a gun-residue test on her hands to determine whether she'd fired a weapon recently. She initially said she hadn't fired a gun, then changed her story to say she had been target shooting earlier in the day. But while the gun-residue test was positive, there was no evidence of target shooting in the snow-covered part of the township to which she led police, he said. "She took us to the area where she said she had done the shooting and we saw nothing - virgin snow", Forrest said.
However, Patricia Monsell's attorney, Thomas Pavics of Raritan Borough, said the state's case is weak, depending mainly on the gun-residue evidence and testimony from her son - who he pointed out might have concocted a story to save himself time in prison. "You can draw your own conclusion that he was arrested and then made the statements," Pavics said. "It seems strange to me that he's saying that when he's sitting there in the box charged with her. My guess is maybe he's the one they should be looking at."
Forrest said, however, that Jason Monsell had not received a plea deal as a result of his cooperation and would not rule out further charges against the son. "The case is still under investigation. Anything is possible" he said, noting detectives were searching the family home Friday afternoon for the second time. Though the Monsells had several guns in their home, the murder weapon still has not been recovered, Forrest said.
- The Courier-News (Bridgewater, New Jersey) May 15, 2004 on page one. By Chad Weihrauch.
