Manchester Man Pleads Guilty In 2019 Leisure Village West Killing

MANCHESTER, NJ — A Manchester Township man has pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in the killing of a man who was found dead in the street in Leisure Village West in July 2019, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday.

Thomas Hatchett, 88, pleaded guilty in the killing of Igal Hedad, 71, before Superior Court Judge Michael T. Collins on Friday, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Hatchett is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 18, and faces 10 to 30 years in prison, subject to the No Early Release Act. Billhimer said the state reserves the right to seek the maximum term.

Manchester police found Hedad, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, dead, face down in the street in front of a Leisure Village West home on Cambridge Circle on July 1, 2019. He was bleeding from the head and had gunshot wounds to his back, Billhimer said. Police also saw what appeared to be a bullet hole through the front door of the home.

The prosecutor's office's SWAT team responded and went into the home, but found no one there, Billhimer said. The investigation found Hatchett had previously lived in Verona, so they contacted Verona police. Verona police then found Hatchett and brought him to police headquarters, where detectives from Manchester and the Ocean County prosecutor's office interviewed him.

They arrested Hatchett and brought him back to Ocean County, and he has been in the Ocean County Jail since.

"This was really a senseless act of violence," Billhimer said. "Hatchett has accepted responsibility for his brutal and inhumane conduct, and he will be sentenced accordingly to state prison for a very long time."

"Any sentence Judge Collins decides to impose will amount to a life sentence given this defendant’s age. Hatchett will spend the rest of his life behind bars, and deservedly so," he said.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Meghan O’Neill handled the case. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Regional SWAT Team, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Victim Witness Advocacy Unit, Manchester Township Police Department, Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, and Verona Police Department investigated.

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