BARNEGAT LIGHT – A man has been sentenced to 45 years in state prison for his role in a 2015 murder in Barnegat Light, announced Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer.
Conrad R. Sipa was sentenced to 40 years by the Honorable Rochelle Gizinski, J.S.C., in connection with the murder of Richard P. Doody, Jr. in November of 2015. This sentence is subject to the No Early Release Act, which means that Sipa must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before he may be considered for parole eligibility.
On April 4, 2019, after a two-week jury trial, Sipa was found guilty of murdering Doody. Doody was murdered sometime between November 21 and 23, 2015, in the Borough of Barnegat Light. According to a release from the prosecutor’s office, a jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that Sipa purposely or knowingly caused the death of Doody and that he employed deadly weapons, specifically a knife and a lamp, to do so.
During the trial, Sipa was also found guilty of two counts of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon. These counts were merged into the murder sentence as a matter of law.
The jury also found Sipa guilty on counts alleging hindering apprehension/prosecution and tampering with physical evidence, which added a consecutive 5 years to his sentence, making his net prison sentence 45 years.
“This was a brutal and senseless murder. I am grateful not only for the tireless efforts of Assistant Prosecutors Sheehan and O’Neill, but for the hard work demonstrated by Detective John Murphy and the entire staff of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit, as well as Detective Sergeant Ron Hullings and the entire Long Beach Township Police Department, for their collaborative efforts investigating and solving this heinous crime,” stated Prosecutor Billhimer.
Prosecutor Billhimer thanked Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Sheehan and Senior Assistant Prosecutor Meghan O’Neill, as well as Allison Betts, a Victim-Witness Advocate for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, for their role in Sipa’s sentencing.
“Hopefully this very lengthy prison sentence, which amounts to a life sentence due to Sipa’s age, brings some measure of closure to Mr. Doody’s friends and family, many of whom were present throughout the trial and today,” Prosecutor Billhimer concluded.
