Tinton Falls Woman Found Guilty Of Murdering Her Girlfriend

TINTON FALLS, NJ – A Monmouth County jury has found a Tinton Falls woman guilty of arranging to have her girlfriend shot over five years ago before fatally strangling her several months later and burying her body in a Long Branch backyard, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced Friday.

Jennifer Sweeney, 38, was convicted on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, three related weapons offenses, second-degree desecration of human remains, and fourth-degree tampering with physical evidence in connection with the death of 41-year-old Tyrita Julius of Linden.

“The suffering endured by Tyrita Julius at the hands of someone who was supposed to care for her during the last several months of her life was unspeakable, and while today’s verdict can’t bring Tyrita back, we hope it offers some sense of solace and closure to her friends and family,” Linskey said in a statement.

At approximately 7:16 p.m. on Nov. 24, 2015, Linden police responded to a shooting report. Upon arrival, officers found Julius, who had been shot eight times, in the driver’s seat of her vehicle, which collided with a utility pole a short distance from her residence. The victim’s teenage daughter was seated in the vehicle's front passenger seat, having also been shot.

The investigation into the shooting was ongoing when, on March 9, 2016, Julius’s mother reported her daughter missing to both the Linden and the Long Branch Police Departments. Authorities were told at that time that Tyrita had been spending time with a female friend in Tinton Falls the day before but failed to return home later that evening.

Investigators from the Union County Prosecutor’s Office and Linden Police Department contacted the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office about the investigation on March 11, 2016, and a joint investigation by members from those agencies, as well as the Union County Police Department, Union County Sheriff’s Office, and the Long Branch, Tinton Falls, and New Jersey Transit police departments was initiated.

Julius’s body was discovered by detectives on Aug. 16, 2016, during a search of the Long Branch residence of 37-year-old Andre Harris, the man who shot Julius the year prior. The victim’s remains were buried in the backyard, wrapped in two garbage bags, with an electrical cord around her neck. Sweeney and Harris were subsequently arrested and charged and indicted in Dec. 2016.

Harris reached a plea agreement for a New Jersey State Prison term of 16 years, with 85 percent to be served before the possibility of parole, while also agreeing to testify against Sweeney.

Sweeney now faces a term of up to life in state prison without the possibility of parole when she is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 19.