UPDATE:Brielle Restaurant Owner Who Tried To Kill Employee Gets 12 Years In State Prison

A Monmouth County Superior Court Judge has sentenced a former Essex County sheriff’s officer who pleaded guilty in May to shooting one of his Sand Bar restaurant employees to 12 years in state prison, according to app.com.

Louis Cataldo must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before he can be considered eligible for parole. He will also be under parole supervision for five years after his release from prison.

The charges stem from the June 18, 2013 shooting outside the Sand Bar restaurant in Brielle, and Cataldo’s subsequent arrest following an eight-hour stand-off with law enforcement officers at his Point Pleasant residence, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said in previous Patch stories.

Brielle police officers responded to several 911 calls around 12:56 a.m. on June 18, 2013, reporting a woman had been shot at the Sand Bar restaurant. Officers arrived to find several good Samaritans tending to the injured victim, a 36-year-old woman who was employed by the restaurant as the general manger. She was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where she underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to her back and injuries to her lungs and eyes, Gramiccioni said.

Nicole Griffin, now 37, a mother of three young children, suffered a ruptured eye, punctured lung and wound to her back, but survived the shooting outside the Sand Bar restaurant in Brielle where she worked for Cataldo as the eatery’s bar manager, app.com said.

Bogner wanted Cataldo sentenced to 20 years. But Superior Court Judge Francis J. Vernoia said today that Caltaldo had no criminal record and said the shooting seemed to be “an absolute aberration.”

To read the entire story on app.com, click here.