FREEHOLD - An appellate court today upheld the conviction and year prison term for Scott Kologi, the Long Branch man who, as a special needs teen, massacred his mother, father, sister and surrogate grandmother with his brother's assault rifle at the family's New Year's Eve party in Natali Jr. Mawla of the Appellate Division of Superior Court, in a page opinion, rejected 10 arguments put forth by Kologi's attorneys seeking to overturn his conviction and sentence.
Chief among the arguments was that the sentencing judge did not adequately consider Kologi's youth and mental limitations in imposing a "grossly excessive sentence. A Monmouth County jury, in convicting Kologi of four counts of murder, rejected an insanity defense put forth by his attorneys, Richard Lomurro and Emeka Nkwuo. They argued at Kologi's trial that he is autistic and schizophrenic and was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time of the massacre.
Lemieux, in sentencing Kologi to years in prison, failed to adequately consider his youth, the fact that his mother rebuffed his request for mental health treatment, and that his brother left a loaded assault rifle next to his bed, accessible to the defendant. Though a minor, Kologi was tried as an adult because of the seriousness of the offenses. In upholding the conviction and sentence, the appellate judges cited evidence that Kologi planned the murders, methodically chose whom to kill and whom to spare, and then disarmed himself and waited in his bedroom for police to arrive.
The panel noted what Lemieux said in sentencing Kologi: "These acts that the defendant was involved with are clearly the acts of an evil man with an evil spirit with an intention to kill as many people in his path. Under the sentence imposed by Lemieux, Kologi will not become eligible for parole until he has served years, six months and four days in prison. Upon learning of the appellate court decision, Lomurro vowed to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Scott was a year-old autistic boy with many issues that went ignored. If we turn our back now, we do the same thing again. The appellate judges also rejected defense arguments that Lemieux, now Monmouth County's assignment judge, improperly allowed the jury to view Kologi's videotaped confession.
