Scott Kologi Teen Killer Murders Family

Scott Kologi

Scott Kologi was sixteen years old when the teen killer from New Jersey when he shot and killer four members of his family on New Years Eve in 2017. According to court documents Scott Kologi would use a a semi-automatic rifle to shoot and kill 18-year-old Brittany Kologi, his mother, 44-year-old Linda Kologi, his father, 42-year-old Steven Kologi, all of Long Branch, and also killed his grandfather’s companion, 70-year-old Mary Schulz, of Ocean Township. Scott Kologi lawyers attempted to blame the massacre on his mental health problems however a jury was not going for it and found him guilty of the four murders. At his sentencing the judge wanted to make sure that Scott Kologi never set foot outside of prison again sentenced him to 150 years.

Scott Kologi 2022 Information

Scott Kologi 2022
Scott A Kologi
SBI Number:000814623G
Sentenced as:Kologi, Scott A
Race:White
Ethnicity:Unknown
Sex:Male
Hair Color:Brown
Eye Color:Brown
Height:6’0″Weight:170 lbs.
Birth Date:September 1, 2001
Admission Date:June 30, 2022
Current Facility:In Transfer
Current Max Release Date:June 29, 2145
Current Parole Eligibility Date:N/A

Scott Kologi More News

A 20-year-old New Jersey man who brutally massacred four members of his own family with a high-powered assault rifle on New Year’s Eve appears poised to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Monmouth County Superior Court Criminal Division Presiding Judge Marc C. Lemieux on Thursday sentenced Scott Kologi to 150 years in state prison for killing his mother, father, older sister, and surrogate grandmother on the final day of 2017, prosecutors announced.

A jury in February took less than five hours to convict Kologi four counts of first-degree murder and a second-degree weapons charge in the deaths of  Linda Kologi, 44; Steven Kologi Sr., 42; Mary Schulz, 70; and Brittany Kologi, 18.

Judge Lemieux on Thursday also denied a series of motions from Kologi’s defense team seeking a new trial and verdict reversal, saying the evidence against Kologi was “overwhelming” and his crime resulted in “immeasurable harm.

Prosecutors agreed and sought “a sentence matching the severity of the crime,” according to a press release from the prosecutor’s office.

“These were acts of evil, carried out by someone who knew exactly what he was doing,” Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Sean Brennan said during the proceeding. “He killed them because he could. He killed them because he wanted to.”

Officers with the Long Branch Police Department and deputies with Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office, at approximately 11:43 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2017, responded to a 911 call reporting shots fired at 635 Wall Street. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders discovered all four victims at different locations within the residence, with each appearing to have sustained multiple gunshot wounds. All four were pronounced dead on the scene.

A then-16-year-old Scott Kologi was arrested at the house and the firearm used in the killings, a C39v2 semi-automatic rifle, was recovered.

As previously reported by Law&Crime, authorities said Kologi confessed to the murders during that initial meeting with detectives from the Long Branch Police Department. Video of the interrogation shows Kologi calmly explaining how he killed each of the four family members while his brother struggles to maintain his composure

“When everything was happening, I felt like I was watching it like I was further back in my mind,” he said. “I just kept firing until they, like, stopped moving.”

Scott Kologi told detectives that he went upstairs and put on a leather jacket, sunglasses and earplugs just before his killing spree. He then loaded a rifle belonging to his biological brother and stood in his room with all of the lights turned off, noting that he knew his mother would come looking for him and he didn’t want her to see him with the weapon.

Assistant Prosecutor Brennan described the shooting during Thursday’s proceeding to illustrate the premeditated nature of the crime. Per Brennan, Kologi lured his mother upstairs, shooting her in the head four times “under the cover of darkness.” He then shot his father in the back and torso as he rushed upstairs to see what was going on. Kologi then made his way downstairs and “casually” murdered his surrogate grandmother with several shots to the torso. He then shot his sister, who was home from school on winter break, in the head three times while she sat at the kitchen table.

Kologi told detectives that he planned to shoot more people until he saw his grandfather—who, along with Kologi’s brother, was home during the attack—fall to his knees and break down in tears after he shot Schulz made him “confused.” The grandfather and brother were unharmed.

“Even though they physically survived,” Brennan said, “they will still have to deal with the mental scars of what they saw.”

In all, Kologi fired 14 shots, with 12 of those shots hitting his victims.

Kologi pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorneys, Richard Lomurro and Emeka Nkwuo, argued that their client had untreated schizophrenia and hallucinations and experienced a psychotic break the day of the murders. Kologi also suffered from severe developmental disabilities.

As previously reported by Law&Crime, Kologi’s defense attorneys called one of his surviving brothers, Jonathan Ruiz, to the stand to support its claims during the second week of the three-week trial. Ruiz testified that at the time of the shootings his brother still believed in Santa Claus, slept in his parents’ bed, and could not get dressed by himself.

A prosecution expert countered that Kologi was “autistic, not schizophrenic, and knew what he was doing when he killed his family members,” according to the Asbury Park Press.

Scott Kologi Teen Killer Guilty Of 4 Murders

Scott Kologi teen killer

Scott Kologi is a teen killer from New Jersey who has just been found guilty of four murders. According to court documents Scott Kologi would murder his parents, sister and a family friend. According to police records Scott Kologi would fatally shoot Linda Kologi, 44, father Steven Kologi Sr., 42, sister, Brittany, 18, and Mary Shulz, 70 on New Years Eve 2017 inside of the New Jersey home. His lawyers attempted to put up a defense saying the teen killer suffered from years of mental abuse however the jury was not buying it. Scott Kologi will be sentenced at a later date

Scott Kologi More News

A Monmouth County jury Thursday found Scott Kologi guilty of the murders of three family members and a close family friend in the family’s Long Branch home minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve 2017.

The jury rejected arguments by defense attorneys that Kologi was insane when, at age 16, he used his older brother’s assault rifle to shoot and kill his mother, Linda Kologi, 44; father, Steven Kologi Sr., 42; sister, Brittany, 18; and Mary Shulz, 70, the longtime girlfriend of his grandfather whom he regarded as a grandmother, as the family gathered to celebrate the holiday.

Kologi, wearing a mask and seated behind a plexiglass partition in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Marc C. LeMieux, looked downward toward his lap as the jury foreman announced the panel’s verdict. The defendant, now 20, did not appear to show any emotion.

“His reaction is confirmation of his mental challenges, which is, he is incapable of understanding the gravity of what happened, which is heartbreaking to see,” said Richard Lomurro, one of Kologi’s defense attorneys. 

While Lomurro said he is disappointed in the verdict, he added, “This is a case that needed to be tried, and a jury needed to make this case a lesson about mental health, gun safety and open minds, making sure people get mental health treatment before this happens.”

Lomurro and defense attorney Emeka Nkwuo argued during the trial that their client told family members he was having uncontrollable thoughts about hurting them in the months leading up to the killings, and that he begged his family for help, but his pleas were ignored. The defense attorneys argued that Kologi’s mental illness got progressively worse to the point where he was taken over by a psychotic episode when the killings occurred.

Caitlin Sidley and Sean Brennan, assistant Monmouth County prosecutors, argued Kologi knew exactly what he was doing and knew it was wrong when he loaded each of 30 bullets into magazines for the assault rifle and then pulled the rifle’s trigger 14 times while aiming at family members, hitting his mark 12 of the 14 times.

The jury began deliberating about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, About an hour and 15 minutes after returning from an hourlong lunch break, the panel indicated it had reached a verdict.

The verdict was announced about 3 p.m.

In addition to finding Kologi guilty of the murder, the jury convicted him of possessing a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

The defendant could face four life prison terms for the murders. LeMieux scheduled sentencing for June 30.

The trial began Feb. 9 and, because spectators were not allowed into the courtroom due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was broadcast live on the New Jersey judiciary’s website, njcourts.gov. 

Although Kologi was a minor when the killings occurred, he was tried as an adult because of the seriousness of the offenses.

Whether the defendant committed the killings was never in question. Within hours of the massacre, Kologi gave a detailed account to detectives, telling them he took his brother’s assault rifle, loaded a total of 30 bullets into two magazines and turned out the lights in his room so his mother wouldn’t see him when she came to look for him minutes before midnight.

When she did, Kologi told the detectives he shot her five to seven times in the chest and torso, and then shot his father in the back when he came upstairs to see what was going on.

After shooting his parents, Kologi said he went downstairs and pumped four bullets into Shulz before turning the gun on his sister and shooting her three times in the chest and head.

The jury viewed a videotape of Kologi’s confession during the trial. Kologi did not testify.

In the videotaped confession, Kologi told detectives about experiencing bizarre hallucinations since he was a child. He said he felt like he was watching a movie as he was killing his family members, something a psychologist testifying for the defense said was indicative of his being in a dissociative state at the time of the shootings. The psychologist, Maureen Santina, testified that Kologi is schizophrenic and was experiencing a psychotic episode during the killings. 

Dr. Park Dietz, a California psychiatrist nationally renowned for performing evaluations on notorious criminals such as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski, testified for the state and rebutted Santina’s opinion. Dietz testified that Kologi is autistic, not schizophrenic, and knew what he was doing when he killed his family members.

Witnesses testified at the trial that the close-knit family was preparing to ring in the new year and that Linda Kologi was handing out party favors minutes before she went upstairs to look for Scott and was fatally shot.

Steven Kologi Jr. testified his father ran upstairs, and then he saw Scott walk down the stairs calmly with the assault rifle on his hip and proceed to the kitchen, where he shot his sister and Shulz.

Rafaella Bontempo, Steven Jr.’s girlfriend at the time, testified that she hid behind a refrigerator in the kitchen as she called 911.

In his confession, Scott Kologi told Andrea Tozzi, a detective from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, and Long Branch Detective Michael Verdadeiro  that he snapped out of his daze and stopped shooting when he saw his grandfather, Adrian Kologi, fall to his knees upon witnessing Shulz, his longtime partner, being shot. He told detectives he spared his grandfather’s life and went upstairs to wait for the police to come.

https://www.app.com/story/news/local/courts/2022/02/24/scott-kologi-guilty-verdict-long-branch-nj-family-murders/6928188001/

Scott Kologi Teen Killer Family Massacre

Scott Kologi

Scott Kologi is a teen killer from New Jersey who is currently on trial for the murders of his parents, sister and a family friend back in 2017. According to court documents Scott Kologi would fatally shoot  Linda Kologi, 44, father Steven Kologi Sr., 42, sister, Brittany, 18, and Mary Shulz, 70 on New Years Eve 2017. Now Scott Kologi is on trial and his defense team do not deny that the then eighteen year old committed the murders however they are not trying for an insanity defense saying the teen killer suffered from years of mental illness that would ultimately lead to the quadruple murder.

Scott Kologi More News

 From the time Scott Kologi was a toddler, his oldest brother knew he was different than other kids his age.

“He acted as if he was at a much younger age,” Jonathan Ruiz said of Scott, who is 10 years younger than him.

As Scott got older, the difference between his actual age and the age he acted became greater, Ruiz told a jury in Monmouth County.

“There was a greater disparity in his mental abilities,” Ruiz testified.

At age 15, Scott still slept in the bed with his parents every night, as he had done throughout his childhood, Ruiz said.

In 2017, when Scott was 16, his mother still dressed him every morning and made him special meals “because he had the palate of a child,” Ruiz testified. And, by then, Scott still believed in Santa Claus, he said. 

Asked how he knew that, Ruiz replied, “Because I would help hide presents in the attic so he would believe that Santa brought him the presents, and the presents were tagged ‘Santa.’

That New Year’s Eve, when Ruiz was at his family’s home in Long Branch, Scott appeared happy, he said.

But just before midnight, Ruiz acknowledged, Scott shot and killed his mother, father, sister and surrogate grandmother. 

Ruiz, 30, of Toms River, was the first witness for the defense at Scott Kologi’s trial on four counts of murder.

Defense attorneys do not contest that Scott Kologi shot and killed his mother, Linda Kologi, 44, father Steven Kologi Sr., 42, sister, Brittany, 18, and Mary Shulz, 70, the longtime companion of his grandfather who he looked upon as his grandmother. The defense attorneys, however, claim their client was legally insane and experiencing a severe psychotic episode after suffering for years from mental illness for which he was never treated.

The prosecution has argued that Kologi, despite any mental illness, knew what he was doing when he committed the killings.

The prosecution rested its case Monday after calling two medical examiners to testify about the cause and manner of the deaths of Shulz and the Kologi family members. All were victims of homicide, suffering multiple gunshot wounds from an assault rifle, they testified.

But Ruiz testified that everyone seemed happy earlier that day.

He told the jury that his family was “fun” and “very close.

Although Steven Kologi Sr. was not his biological father, Ruiz always considered him to be his father, he said.

The family would often spend time together playing games, watching movies, taking trips to the beach and playing basketball in the back yard of the family home, Ruiz said. 

“Why was that family time important?” defense attorney Richard Lomurro asked him.

Ruiz paused and wiped tears from his eyes.

“Because family is the most important thing in the world,” he replied and then apologized for crying. 

Ruiz said he was close to Scott, and even after he moved out of the family’s home on Wall Street in Long Branch, he still would visit there at least one or twice a week. 

In 2017, he was at the family gatherings there for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“Christmas was like any other Christmas before, always a happy and joyous occasion,” he said. 

That Christmas, as every Christmas, Ruiz said he watched as Scott opened his presents from Santa Claus. 

That New Year’s Eve, Ruiz said he drove from Toms River to the family’s home and spent several hours there before taking his then-girlfriend, now his wife, to a gathering at a friend’s house in Philadelphia. 

“What was everyone’s mood?” Lomurro asked of those gathered in the Kologi household.

“Happy,” Ruiz replied. 

There were no arguments, and “Scott seemed normal,” he told the jury. 

While he was there, Ruiz said he took a ride with his mother to Domino’s to get a special meal for Scott. 

“What was that ride like with Mom?” Lomurro asked him. The question again brought the witness to tears. 

After a moment, Ruiz, still crying, replied, “It was happy, it was normal.”

He also said he spent “a happy time” with his father that day. Nothing seemed unusual, Ruiz said. 

While at his friend’s house in Philadelphia, Ruiz said he learned that something had happened.

“I immediately rushed to my vehicle and drove directly to Long Branch,” he said.

Several hours later, while at the police station in Long Branch, Ruiz said he learned that his mother, father, sister and “grandmother,” were dead. 

Kologi is being tried as an adult for crimes that occurred when he was still a minor. The trial is before Superior Court Judge Marc C. LeMieux. 

https://www.app.com/story/news/local/courts/2022/02/15/scott-kologi-murder-trial-brother-testifies-long-branch-nj-family-happy/6786929001/

Scott Kologi Other News

The Jersey Shore teen accused of slaughtering his parents, sister and family friend on New Year’s Eve gunned down his victims “at close range” with an AK-47-style rifle, officials said Tuesday.

Scott Kologi has been charged as a juvenile with four counts of first-degree murder for the brutal slayings inside the family’s Long Branch home — but Monmouth County prosecutors intend to try him as an adult.

“We’re going to be attempting to waive him or transfer his case from the juvenile court system up to the adult court system, but there is a process and a procedure that comes with that,” prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said at a press conference Tuesday.

Scott’s father, Steven Kologi, 44, mother, Linda Kologi, 42, sister Brittany Kologi, 18, and Mary Schultz, 70, were all killed in the New Year’s Eve carnage.

Three others — his older brother, Steven Jr., grandfather, Adrian Kologi, and a family friend in her 20s — made it out alive.

“Once they heard the shooting, they ran from it and called 911,” Gramiccioni said.

One of those survivors legally owned the AK-47 variant, made by Century Arms, that Scott Kologi allegedly used in the bloodbath. It had a magazine capable of holding 15 rounds, according to Gramiccioni.

“These deaths are homicides from multiple gunshots at close range,” the prosecutor added.

He called it a “heartbreaking family tragedy.”

“The unfortunate and sad reality is that [in] this case, when we seek justice for the remaining family members . . . the sad fact is that justice is likely going to involve serious punishment for yet another family member and loved one,” Gramiccioni said. “This is a situation that we don’t find ourselves often in.”

Authorities have yet to reveal a motive for the slayings.

Kologi, who is being held at the Middlesex County Youth Detention Center, is expected to appear in court Wednesday. His Tuesday hearing was postponed after media requested to have the court proceeding opened up to press.

Andrea Santos, 45, who has known the family for four years described Linda as being devoted to her teen son, whom friends and neighbors say is autistic.

“She was so devoted to that kid. She was always with him,” Santos told The Post. “I think she thought she was able to take care of that kid. Now, definitely we know that kid needed more help.”A GoFundMe page set up for the Kologi family has raised more than $26,000.