Little Egg Harbor Man Pleads Guilty In Fatal 2018 Stabbing

LITTLE EGG HARBOR, NJ — A Little Egg Harbor man has pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of Richard Pone, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Kendrick Coley, 29, is facing a possible 20 years in state prison, and 85 percent of that would have to be served before being eligible for parole under the No Early Release Act.

On May 16, 2018 at 8:15 p.m., officers from the Little Egg Harbor Police Department responded to a 911 call in reference to a stabbing incident that had taken place at a home on Maplewood Drive, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

When police arrived, they found Coley in the garage area. A woman in the residence took them to a second floor bedroom, where they discovered Pone unresponsive with a stab wound in his left upper chest. Pone was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:42 p.m., authorities said.

An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit and Little Egg Harbor Police Department Detective Bureau determined that Coley had stabbed the victim multiple times after the two had engaged in a physical altercation at the residence, Billhimer said.

Coley was apprehended at the scene and taken into custody without incident. He has been lodged in the Ocean County Jail since the date of his arrest.

His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 3.

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