TRENTON — The devastated mother and father of alleged preppy killer Matthew Hertgen didn’t seem in a New Jersey courtroom Thursday morning for his or her son’s first in-person listening to as he confronted fees for his little’s brother’s bashing and slashing demise in Princeton, NJ.
Hertgen, 31, appeared coherent and alert in the course of the proceedings in Mercer County Superior Courtroom, and agreed that he ought to be held in jail till his trial on homicide and animal cruelty fees as he was represented by a public defender — regardless of his household’s wealth.
Dad and mom David and Debra Hertgen regarded totally bereft on the funeral for his or her youngest son Joseph, 26, on Saturday. Their oldest son, David Jr., gave the eulogy, saying “There’s not one person on Earth that I would be prouder to call my brother.”
Matthew, a bearded former Wesleyan soccer participant, is accused of utilizing a knife and a golf membership to homicide his Jospeh — additionally a former school soccer star. He then ripped out Joseph’s eye and ate it, in accordance with a legislation enforcement supply.
Sources stated he additionally set the household cat on hearth within the rampage on the household’s upscale condominium in Princeton, which is simply blocks from the Ivy League college’s campus.
In court docket on Thursday, Hertgen nodded “yes” as public defender Jason Matey reviewed his constitutional rights and requested him if he consented to his detention.
Mercer County Deputy Public Defender Malaeika Montgomery advised The Submit she has not heard something about Hertgen’s household presumably hiring him a non-public protection lawyer — regardless of his father being the president and CFO of a multimillion-dollar tech firm
He has seven days to file an attraction if he modifies his thoughts about his pre-trial jail keep, Matey stated in court docket.
The choose set his subsequent court docket look for March 24 at 1:30 p.m.
Final Thursday, Hertgen unsuccessfully tried to hold himself on the Mercer County Correction Middle.
The accused killer faces 30 years to life in jail if convicted.
The previous school soccer participant embarked upon his twisted rampage — which has shocked those that knew the well-heeled household – months after he posted chilling poems to Fb that described blood oozing out of eyes and “knives sharpening.”
Hertgen additionally took a selfie with a cat toy a day earlier than the vicious slaughter.
The Hertgen brothers have been standout athletes who grew up in a $1.1 million residence in Toms River earlier than the household uprooted to a ritzy location in Princeton.
The homicide occurred final month on the household residence in upscale Michelle Mews flats, the place models can go for as much as $2 million.
Officers found the grisly scene when the alleged assassin known as the cops to report a useless physique and hearth contained in the Witherspoon Avenue residence.
A bloody knife, fork and plate have been discovered close to the sufferer’s physique, a supply stated, which led cops to imagine Hertgen consumed his brother’s lacking eye.
Authorities nonetheless haven’t revealed a motive for Hertgen’s alleged spiral into homicidal insanity.
