'A huge injustice' -mom, son sentenced to probation for lying in Long Branch murder probes

FREEHOLD — Dolores Morgan and her son, Ted Connors, lived for decades under a cloud of suspicion in the violent deaths of Morgan's daughter and husband.

Then, in 2020, about a quarter century after the deaths of Ana Mejia and Nicholas Connors, authorities finally charged the mother and son with the murders.

But on Friday, now almost three decades after the killings, Morgan, 70, and Connors, 51, walked out of a courtroom with probationary sentences after having pleaded guilty to vastly downgraded charges.

Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley sentenced both of them to two years on probation and the two years and nine days each of them had already spent in the Monmouth County Jail awaiting trial.

The victims' other surviving relatives were not pleased.

"At the end of the day, my father is still gone, and they get to go on living their lives with no consequences,'' one of Nicholas Connors' daughters from a previous marriage said in a statement read in court by her son.

"This has been a huge injustice to our families,'' the daughter said in her statement.

Family members who spoke at the sentencing said they did not want their names published.

Morgan and Ted Connors, formerly of Long Branch and both now living in Delray Beach, Florida,  pleaded guilty to two counts each of hindering their own prosecution, admitting they lied to police investigating both murders.

Their guilty pleas resolved a case plagued with problems that included a mistrial in 2021, when a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict, and a determination by Oxley that prosecutors deliberately withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense.

The case stems from the Dec. 8, 1994, murder of Mejia, 25,  Morgan's daughter and Ted Connors' sister, and the May 14, 1995, murder of Nicholas Connors, 51, Morgan's husband and Ted Connors' adoptive father.

Mejia was found stabbed to death in her Long Branch apartment. Connors was found shot to death in the Connors’ family home in Long Branch.

At the 2021 trial, Meghan Doyle and Noah Heck, assistant Monmouth County prosecutors, argued that Morgan orchestrated the murder of her daughter, and her son committed it, because they thought Mejia was cooperating with authorities in an investigation involving alleged drug dealing by the family.

Those assistant prosecutors argued at the 2021 trial that Morgan also orchestrated her husband's shooting death the following May and enlisted her son to commit it so that she could collect on his $200,000 life insurance policy.

An alleged accomplice, Jose Carrero, 52, of Jackson, testified at the trial that he was with Ted Connors when the murders were committed. But Oxley said he deemed Carrero's testimony to be "less than credible'' and the remainder of the state's evidence "mostly circumstantial,'' when he ordered Morgan and Connors released from jail following the mistrial.

Oxley also said previously that the assistant prosecutors who handled the trial blatantly and deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory evidence from the defense attorneys.

The withheld evidence consisted of handwritten notes from 1995 indicating that Carrero, the star prosecution witness, confessed to an acquaintance that it was he - not Ted Connors - who killed Nicholas Connors.

When he entered his guilty plea, Ted Connors admitted he intentionally lied to police about his whereabouts on certain dates and times amid both murder investigations, knowing he was a person of interest, to avoid being charged.

R. Diane Aifer, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, on Friday said Ted Connors had "numerous opportunities over the years to share what he knew,'' but instead "misrepresented and fabricated information'' and continued to mislead investigators for 30 years.

Ted Connors was the "sole or main target of law enforcement'' throughout the two murder investigations, and was brought in for questioning "time and time again,'' said his attorney, Jonathan Petty.

In his early 20s when the murders occurred, Ted Connors, now a married father of two young children, runs a martial arts school in Florida and also sells real estate, Petty said. The defense attorney called his client an individual "who has an extremely strong character.''

Petty said Ted Connors has taken criminal responsibility for lying to investigators years ago.

His court record consists of only two municipal court cases in the 1990s, Petty said.

Freed from jail under supervised release after the 2021 mistrial, Ted Connors "has already shown that he will be a model probationer,'' Petty said.

Morgan lied to investigators and misdirected them to other suspects "to avoid law enforcement coming in her direction,'' Aifer said at the sentencing hearing.

"There's a certain unique cruelty here in the way she continued to live around the other people who were grievously impacted by these murders,'' the assistant prosecutor said.

Morgan's attorney, Jason Seidman, described Morgan as a model client and prisoner.

Morgan had one conviction for a misdemeanor in 1989, Seidman said.

"She is courteous,'' Seidman said of his client. "She's been nothing but polite.

"No one is going to leave this courtroom happy today,'' Seidman said.

Another of Nicholas Connors' daughters who spoke at the sentencing hearing denounced the outcome of the case.

"The lies they told here were no small lies,'' she said, adding they "affected everyone who tried to resolve the case.''

A "resolution is now never available,'' she said. "The system has let the family down.''

Oxley, in sentencing the pair, addressed the family's disappointment.

"There's nothing I could do with regard to any words that I could say that is going to change the hurt,'' the judge said in sentencing Ted Connors.

"There's nothing I can do to bring, really, full closure,'' he said in sentencing Morgan. "There's nothing I can do to restore the things that have been lost.''

Neither of the two defendants addressed the court at the sentencing hearing.

Carrero pleaded guilty in 2020 to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in a plea bargain that calls for a 20-year prison term. He faces sentencing next month.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Mom, son get probation for lying in probe of Long Branch murders