Colts Neck Teen Gets 15 Years in Stabbing Death

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John Burton

FREEHOLD – An 18-year-old Colts Neck man was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in state prison for stabbing a Colts Neck woman and stealing her car in 2013 when the perpetrator was 16.

Superior Court Judge Ronald Lee sentenced Brennan Doyle, now 18, for Doyle’s guilty plea in August for the first degree offenses of attempted murder and carjacking, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

Doyle had said in court previously he did not know the victim when he attacked her with a 10-inch knife.

Doyle’s sentence is subject to the No Early Release Act, meaning Doyle will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence before being considered for parole. Doyle will also be required to be under three years of parole supervision following his release from prison, according to Charles Webster, a spokesman for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

On July 7, 2013, at approximately 12:30 a.m., Colts Neck police responded to a call from a township woman saying she had been attacked and stabbed by an unknown assailant. Officers and emergency medical personnel found the victim had been stabbed multiple times. She was transported to an area hospital, where she remained in critical condition for a number of days, before being eventually discharged, according to authorities.

The joint investigation conducted by Colts Neck and prosecutor’s detectives determined the victim heard noises outside her home and when she went to investigate the assailant pushed his way into the house stabbed her several times, leaving her for dead. The perpetrator, who investigators determined to be Doyle, then took the keys to the victim’s car, which was parked in the driveway. Doyle drove the car away from the scene, abandoning it later that morning in Aberdeen, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Given the suspect’s age and confidentiality requirements, authorities did not release Doyle’s identity until the matter was transferred to Superior Court, according to Webster.