'I never wanted to kill her, I loved her,' Lacey man testifies at trial for wife's murder

FREEHOLD — Jeremy Cruz called Berkeley Township police in Ocean County on Oct. 30, 2022, to tell them he was going there to turn himself in for a murder.

That was after he choked his wife of 26 years to death and left her on the side of a road in Ocean Township on the way home from Asbury Park, where their oldest son's band had just played a gig.

When Cruz got to Berkeley police headquarters, he told detectives he and his wife, Dawn, 51, were arguing all night during the show at Asbury Lanes and, on the way home, he lost it when she threatened divorce and told her she was going to go after his pension.

In recorded statements, he told the detectives he pulled over the car and put his hands around his wife's neck and, when her body went limp, he pulled her out of the car and "finished it.''

But, on Tuesday, for the first time, Cruz, 53, of Lacey Township, told a Monmouth County jury he tried to save his wife's life that night by giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her.

Also for the first time, he said what set him off wasn't his wife's threats on his pension, but learning that she was having an affair.

On trial before Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley, Cruz said he never meant to kill his wife.

"I never wanted to kill her,'' he said. "I loved her.''

Cruz was on the witness stand for about two hours, about half of that time being peppered with questions from Caitlin Sidley, an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor who pointed out things Cruz said on the witness stand Tuesday that he never thought important enough to tell detectives who questioned him in 2022. Those things included that he found out that night about an affair his wife was having, that he had been drinking all day before the incident and that he tried to save his wife's life.

"For the first time today, you tell us you tried to give your wife mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,'' Sidley said.

"I didn't think it was important,'' Cruz responded.

Defense attorneys Adam Mitchell and Deven Ferrara do not deny Cruz took part in the fatal assault on his wife, but they say he did not act purposely and knowingly, which is an element that must be proven to convict someone of murder.

Being questioned by Mitchell, Cruz testified he had been drinking all day and was drunk when the fatal assault occurred.

He told the jury that Dawn, the mother of their two adult sons, had been distancing herself from him, and that led him to secretly drinking in their garage.

When they went to see their oldest son's band play at Asbury Lanes that night, they argued about his drinking, he said.

"She wanted me to stop drinking,'' Cruz told the jury.

"She was upset with you because you were talking to other people and not near her?'' Mitchell asked him.

"Yes,'' Cruz responded.

Cruz said he eventually left Asbury Lanes because he didn't want to argue anymore, but eventually waited for his wife to come out so he could drive her home.

That was after they exchanged a long series of angry text messages in which Dawn Cruz told her husband he better get a lawyer if he left her at Asbury Lanes, according to previous trial testimony from Aaron Shaw, the lead detective on the case from the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.

"When we left the Lanes, we got into a heated argument in the car and we were yelling back and forth at each other,'' Cruz told the jury.

"And she said a couple of nasty things to me, and I just couldn't concentrate anymore and I knew I shouldn't be driving,'' he said. ''Everything was getting blurry. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think, and I just knew that I had to pull over.''

Suspecting his wife was having an affair, "I kept asking her, 'Who is he?'" Cruz testified, saying he did learn the name of the person she was having an affair with.

"I turned off on the next street,'' Cruz said. "I couldn't drive anymore. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. Everything was a blur to me.''

Mitchell asked Cruz why he started choking his wife at that point.

"I don't know why,'' he responded. "I just remember being yelled at and I just reached for her.

"She was hitting me, trying to scratch, push me off of her, and she went limp,'' Cruz told the jury.

He said he stopped choking her "because we weren't fighting anymore,'' and he got out of the car and pulled his wife out of the passenger seat of the car.

Cruz claimed his wife was awake at that point and standing up.

"She started kicking , hitting me and then eventually, we both had each other's hands on each other's throats,'' Cruz said. "We were choking each other.''

He said Dawn passed out and fell to the ground.

"I was standing over her and I was trying to wake her up,'' Cruz told the jury, adding “I was looking for signs of life.''

That's when he said he administered life-saving measures, which were unsuccessful.

"I panicked,'' he said. "I couldn't think straight. Again, I could barely stand.''

Cruz told the jury that he knew Dawn was dead and he tried to ensure she wasn't disheveled before he left her there.

"I wanted to clean her up and make her look nice,'' Cruz testified.

Mitchell asked Cruz if he ever told detectives he didn't mean to kill his wife.

"No, I did not,'' he responded. "I wasn't thinking at the time.

"It wasn't on purpose,'' Cruz insisted. "Again, I would never kill my wife. I could never hurt her.''

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Sidley, in cross-examining the defendant, pointed out that when he called Berkeley police that night to tell them he was going to surrender for a murder, he never told them the location of his dead wife.

She played a recording of that call during the cross-examination. On it, when the dispatcher asked Cruz for information about the person he killed, he responded, "They're dead. That's all I can say to you.''

Sidley pointed out Cruz didn't try to contact police in Asbury Park or Ocean Township.

Cruz testified he called Berkeley police because he used to live in the township and also had worked for the sewerage authority there for more than 30 years. He said he didn't know how to get to Asbury Park police headquarters.

Cruz denied ever punching his wife, even though Sidley pointed out  that a medical examiner testified the victim had 12 points of blunt trauma on her face, including a black eye. Cruz responded that must have happened when his wife fell, to which the assistant prosecutor said the victim only fell one time.

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"Did you call her names while you were choking her,'' Sidley asked him.

"No,'' the defendant responded.

"Was Dawn crying?'' Sidley asked.

"Not that I noticed,'' Cruz said.

"Was she screaming?'' Sidley asked.

"I don't recall,'' Cruz responded.

"Do you recall if your wife begged you to stop?'' the assistant prosecutor asked.

""I don't believe she did,'' he said.

Attorneys are expected to sum up their cases for the jury today.

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: Monmouth man on trial for murder testifies he didn't mean to kill wife