Murder-For-Hire Charge Added For Brick Man In Father's Killing

BRICK, NJ — A Brick Township man charged in the killing of his father in 2019 is now accused of murder for hire in the case, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Friday.

Mark J. Austin, 30, of Brick Township, was charged Thursday in a superseding indictment that accuses him of "procuring the commission of the murder of his father by payment or promise of payment of anything of monetary value," Prosecutor Bradley J. Billhimer said.

Mark Richard Austin, 55, was found beaten to death in a home on Acorn Drive in the Cedar Bridge Manor neighborhood on Sept. 7, 2019.

Mark J. Austin and Jeray Melton, 30, of Salem, were arrested Sept. 13, 2019 in the killing, which authorities described as a savage beating, and they were indicted in the slaying on Dec. 3, 2019, on murder and weapons charges, Billhimer said.

"It was not known at that time that this was a murder-for-hire situation," Billhimer said.

Melton pleaded guilty Feb. 25, 2020, to aggravated manslaughter in the case, Billhimer said.

If convicted of murder-for-hire, Mark J. Austin would be sentenced to life in prison without parole eligibility, Billhimer said.

Authorities say Melton told them Austin put a gun to his head and forced him to beat the elder Austin to death with the baseball bat. The two were former prison bunkmates, The Asbury Park Press has reported.

Mark J. Austin was arrested on weapons charges in Toms River in 2013, after he allegedly made threats to another person and then ran when police pulled him over for questioning. Police found a loaded AK-47 and a shotgun in his vehicle, authorities said at the time.

Melton was arrested in 2012 after police responding to a fight at a Salem County home found him in possession of a sawed-off shotgun and a bulletproof vest, NJ.com reported. He was charged with making terroristic threats, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, two counts of possession of a sawed-off shotgun, unlawful possession of a weapon, certain persons not to have weapons, and resisting arrest in that case.

Billhimer said further investigation uncovered that Mark J. Austin agreed to pay Melton a sum of money in exchange for killing his father.

Melton is being held at the Monmouth County jail pending sentencing, Billhimer said. Mark J. Austin remains in the Ocean County Jail awaiting trial.

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