Man gets life without parole for fatally stabbing couple
LONG BRANCH, N.J. (AP) — A man convicted in the stabbing deaths of a couple found dead inside an apartment has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Carlos Menjivar was accused in the March 2013 slayings of 35-year-old Maria Yolanda Catejo-Munoz and her boyfriend, 33-year-old Fredis Orlando Ventura. Their bodies were found in Ventura's Long Branch apartment by police who were investigating a missing person's report that had been filed about his girlfriend.
Monmouth County prosecutors say Ventura invited Menjivar, Catejo-Munoz and another man to his apartment. Shortly after the third man left the apartment, they say Menjivar stabbed the victims.
Authorities say Menjivar eventually admitted stabbing Ventura in the neck with a knife but claimed he had been forced to do so by others who also had killed Catejo-Munoz. He was convicted last December on murder and weapons charges.