Police, Fire & Courts

Berkeley Man Pleads Guilty to Stabbing Death of Seaside Heights Resident

by
Daniel Nee
January 30, 2024

Angelo Grenci (Photo: NJ State Corrections)

A Berkeley Township man has pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated manslaughter in connection with a stabbing that claimed the life of a Seaside Heights man.

Angelo Grenci, 47, of Berkeley Township, pled guilty to Monday before Superior Court Judge Kimarie Rahill in connection with the death of Carlton Williams, 50, of Seaside Heights. The killing occurred in Berkeley Township, on Nov. 14, 2020.

At the time of his sentencing on April 19, 2024, prosecutors will be seeking a term of 25 years New Jersey state prison.

The case dates back to the evening hours of Nov. 14, 2020, when officers from the Toms River Township Police Department and Berkeley Township Police Department responded to RWJ Barnabas Community Medical Center in Toms River for a report of a male victim having been stabbed.

Responding Officers found the victim, Williams, with an apparent stab wound to his neck. Williams was subsequently flown to Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center in New Brunswick, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries on Nov. 21, 2020. The medical examiner determined the cause of Williams’s death to be anoxic brain injury secondary to massive bleed from a stab to the neck, and the manner of death to be homicide.

Municipal and county detectives determined that Grenci stabbed Williams in the neck during an altercation that occurred in the area of Magnolia Avenue in the Manitou Park section of Berkeley Township at approximately 7 p.m. on Nov. 14, 2020. On November 16, 2020, SWAT team members and detectives executed a court-authorized search warrant at Grenci’s residence in Berkeley Township, at which point he was taken into custody without incident, and initially transported to and lodged in the Ocean County Jail.

Grenci has since been lodged in New Jersey State Prison where he is presently serving a sentence on an unrelated matter. According to state prison records, Grenci is serving a five-year prison term for robbery using bodily force and theft by unlawful taking.