30 Years For Long Branch Man Who Killed Woman Over Cocaine Argument

LONG BRANCH, NJ — A man who admitted killing a woman in his Long Branch home in 2015 has been sentenced for a second time for her death, this time to 30 years in prison, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago announced Tuesday.

The man is Christopher Aparicio-Reyes, 28, and the woman is Jennifer Pizzuto, 40. He was previously convicted and sentenced to life in prison until an appellate panel overturned it on procedural grounds in August 2021, and ordered a new trial.

The man and woman did not know each other.

Shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 13, 2015, Long Branch Police responded to a home on the 100 block of Rockwell Avenue. They found the woman in an upstairs bedroom, having sustained numerous severe injuries.

According to this appellate court decision on the murder, Pizzuto came into his bedroom that night as he was snorting lines of cocaine. She took a fifty-dollar bag of cocaine he had just purchased and fifty dollars in cash and refused to return them.

In response, he punched her several times in the face. Pizzuto screamed and fell to the ground bleeding.

Aparicio-Reyes admitted to law enforcement agents that he strangled her to silence her screams. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

A fast-moving investigation by members of the Monmouth Prosecutor's Major Crimes Bureau and Long Branch Police resulted in Aparicio-Reyes being apprehended in Long Branch shortly after 3 p.m. the next day, found hiding at a friend’s house — before he could follow through on a plan to flee across the country.

After consulting with Pizzuto’s family, plea negotiations resulted in Aparicio-Reyes pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter in May 2023.

He must serve at least 85 percent of his 30-year sentence prior to the possibility of parole.