By KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
EDISON — An Elizabeth man admitted in Middlesex County Superior Court that he beat a 30-year-old woman about the head with a section of pipe and left her for dead at the Raritan Center industrial complex in Edison, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey.
Mickey Vanderpool, 61, pleaded guilty to a second-degree count of aggravated assault for attacking the woman in June 2016.
Under a plea agreement reached with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Allysa Gambarella on March 23, Vanderpool will be sentenced to serve eight years in a New Jersey state prison with no chance for parole until he completes 85 percent of the term.
Vanderpool was charged during an investigation by Detective Joseph Kenney of the Edison Police Department and Sgt. Wayne Canastra and Detective George Stilwell, both of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
During the investigation it was determined that Vanderpool met the woman in Newark, repeatedly struck her about the head with the pipe and left her for dead at Raritan Center.
After a day or more, the woman wandered around the industrial complex before she saw a utility worker and asked for help. Police were called to the scene.
The woman was taken to JFK Medical Center in Edison where she was treated and released.
Sentencing for Vanderpool is scheduled for June 23 before Superior Court Judge Alberto Rivas in New Brunswick.