Retrial: South Brunswick Man Found Guilty For Killing His Parents

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — A South Brunswick man was found guilty by a jury Tuesday for strangling his parents to death in their Monmouth Junction home in 2008.

This was a murder retrial for Michael A. Maltese, 29, who had his previous convictions in the brutal murders overturned. The couple was killed in their mobile home on Maple Street in the Monmouth Junction Mobile Home Park on Oct. 8, 2008.

Maltese previously confessed to the murders, and was convicted in November of 2010. But in 2015, the state Supreme Court overturned that manslaughter conviction, saying a confession he gave was inadmissible because police secretly recorded one of his conversations to help their investigation.

However, South Brunswick police fought that overruling. They testified in court last August that even without Maltese's confession they would have found the bodies, thus implicating him in the murder.

Following an altercation with his father, Michael J. Maltese, 58, the younger man strangled him and then turned on his mother, Kathleen Maltese, 53, strangling her to death as well. Maltese then buried their bodies in a shallow grave in Beech Woods Park in South Brunswick. Their bodies were found by South Brunswick police on Oct. 25, stacked in a hole in the popular park, less than two miles from their Maple Street home.

Maltese and his girlfriend, Nicole Taylor, then went on a shopping spree with his parents' credit cards. They allegedly ran up a $27,000 bill on the cards, purchasing items including DVDs, sporting goods and an engagement ring, with purchases made at Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble, EB Games and Pierre's Restaurant and Deli. The girlfriend, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence, pleaded guilty to two counts of accomplice to manslaughter.

With his new conviction, he is facing an aggregate prison term of up to 20 years. He is subject to the No Early Release Act, which means he must serve 85 percent of his prison term before becoming eligible for parole.

Maltese's previous convictions on charges of hindering prosecution, theft by unlawful taking, fraudulent use of credit card, tampering with evidence, false swearing, and desecration of human remains were upheld by the Supreme Court.