A Colts Neck resident has pleaded guilty to charges he stabbed a township woman in her home before carjacking her vehicle during an incident that occurred in 2013, Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced.
Brennan Doyle, now 18 but 16 at the time he committed his crimes, pleaded guilty on Aug. 27 before state Superior Court Judge Francis J. Vernoia, sitting in Freehold, to one count each of first degree carjacking and first degree attempted murder.
During a court appearance, Doyle admitted he repeatedly stabbed the victim in her home in Colts Neck with the intent of killing her and then fled the home in the victim’s motor vehicle.
As a result of his plea agreement with authorities, Doyle faces a sentence of between 14 and 15 years in state prison, subject to the provisions of the No Early Release Act, requiring him to serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for release on parole, according to the prosecutor.
Sentencing is scheduled before Vernoia on Oct. 29.
Colts Neck police received a 911 call at 12:30 a.m. July 7, 2013, from a township woman indicating she had been stabbed by an unknown assailant.
Police officers and emergency medical personnel responded to her residence and discovered she had been stabbed several times.
The woman was taken to a hospital in critical condition. She remained in the hospital for several days receiving treatment for her injuries and was eventually discharged.
A joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Colts Neck Police Department revealed the woman heard noise coming from outside her house and when she went to open her door to investigate, the assailant pushed his way into her house and stabbed her several times.
The assailant took the keys to her car and fled the scene in her vehicle. The vehicle was recovered in neighboring Aberdeen Township later that same morning, according to the prosecutor.