New Jersey woman sentenced to 95 years for shooting, strangling girlfriend, then burying her body

Jennifer Sweeney, a New Jersey woman convicted of shooting and strangling her girlfriend to death then burying her body, has been sentenced.

Sweeney, 38, of Tinton Falls has been sentenced to 95 years for the murder of 41-year-old Tyrita Julius, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced Saturday.

“This sentencing is a fitting outcome to the prosecution of genuinely monstrous crimes,” Linskey said. “This defendant’s actions were callous, calculated, and vicious, and ended the life of a woman beloved by her family and friends. I sincerely thank the detectives and assistant prosecutors who worked so diligently over so many years to see that justice was done in this case.”

Jennifer Sweeney murdered Tyrita Julius

This horrific story all unfolded on November 24, 2015 when police were called to a home on Middlesex Street in Linden, N.J. on a report of a shooting.

Tyrita Julius

Responding officers found Julius, who had been shot eight times, sitting in her vehicle, which had crashed into a utility pole not far from her home, reported ABC 7 NY.

The woman’s 15-year-old daughter was in the front passenger seat of the car, also having sustained a gunshot wound.

Julius and her daughter were hospitalized and recovered from their injuries.

The investigation into the shooting was still in progress when on March 9, 2016, Julius’ mother reported her daughter missing.

Authorities learned that the night before, Julius had been with Jennifer Sweeney, whom Julius had met through a motorcycle club.

While Julius was recovering from being shot, Sweeney visited her in the hospital.

Six months after Tyrita Julius was reported missing, her body was discovered buried in a shallow grave at a home on Joline Avenue in Long Branch, N.J.

Julius had been strangled with an electrical cord and wrapped in two garbage bags, according to authorities.

House on Joline Avenue in Long Branch, NJ where Tyrita Julius body was found. Copyright : Unheard Voices Magazine

During the course of the investigation, detectives determined that Andre Harris, 37, of Long Branch was the gunman who shot Julius and her daughter in 2015 and that Sweeney set up the hit on her.

Arrests

Sweeney and Harris were arrested in August 2016 and charged in connection to Julius’ murder and failed murder attempt.

Jennifer Sweeney (Left), 33, and Andre Harris, 32 (Right), Photo Source : New Jersey 12 News

Harris later reached a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for a 16-year sentence in state prison and agreed to testify against Sweeney.

During Sweeney’s murder trial, Harris testified that the defendant was a “jealous lover” who suspected Julius of cheating on her.

Harris said Sweeney told him: “If I can’t have her, no one can.”

Harris accused Sweeney, whom he knew from high school, of threatening his life and the lives of his children if he did not kill Julius with the gun she had provided him.

Six months after the failed murder attempt, Harris said Sweeney drove to his house in Long Branch, N.J. with Julius dead in her Jeep Cherokee, and forced him at gunpoint to help her dispose of the woman’s body.

Jennifer Sweeney sentenced

Jennifer Sweeney must serve a minimum of 85 percent of both the 75-year life term for the murder and the 20-year term for the shooting, under the provisions of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act, meaning she will not become eligible for parole until she is more than 100 years of age.