October 16, 2026

Life plus 10 years for NJ man who murdered ex-girlfriend in 2022

By The Night Desk

Headline card by The Night Desk

Life plus 10 years for NJ man who murdered ex-girlfriend in 2022

A Monmouth County Superior Court judge sentenced Jordan Vilcatoma-Correjo, 32, of Edison, to life in prison plus 10 more years on Oct. 15, 2026, for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Sonia Gonzales, 26, in 2022.

Judge Jill Grace O'Malley called him "a brute" at sentencing, saying the killing was prolonged and deliberate: "This was a prolonged, sustained attack on this victim. This was torture."

The case

• Vilcatoma-Correjo stood trial earlier this year; a jury found him guilty of murder and desecration of human remains on June 5.
• Police found Gonzales' brutalized body stuffed in garbage bags in the back seat of the car the defendant was driving in Atlantic Highlands on the morning of June 10, 2022.
• Where Gonzales was actually killed was never established at trial.
• Prosecutor Caitlin Sidley argued at sentencing that Vilcatoma-Correjo stalked Gonzales after she broke up with him — even after she moved out of their shared Edison apartment, changed her phone number, and changed her routines.
• Gonzales was last seen alive on gym video, leaving with Vilcatoma-Correjo hours before her body was discovered. Police were alerted by the defendant's frantic relatives.

She fought for her life

The judge noted that Gonzales fought desperately — officers found part of Vilcatoma-Correjo's finger, which she bit off in the struggle, alongside her body. The autopsy showed blunt-force head trauma, a fractured throat from neck compression, bruising across her body, and the removal of her eye.

Testifying in his own defense, Vilcatoma-Correjo never explained how Gonzales died — and at sentencing he again insisted it was unintentional. The judge countered: "The facts at trial established a deeply violent and deliberate killing."

The sentence

Under New Jersey's No Early Release Act, Vilcatoma-Correjo must serve 63 3/4 years — 85 percent of the life term — before he begins serving the separate 10-year term for desecrating her remains.

"It is the only sentence that justly reflects the severity of this offense and the defendant's utter disregard for human life," the judge said.

Source: Asbury Park Press

Source: Asbury Park Press — read the original report