Killer who buried victim in Pinelands gets 23.5 years
A Staten Island man was sentenced to 23.5 years in state prison today after pleading guilty in July to strangling his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and burying her in a shallow grave in New Jersey's Pine Barrens, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office said.
A Staten Island man was sentenced to 23.5 years in state prison today after pleading guilty in July to strangling his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and burying her in a shallow grave in New Jersey's Pine Barrens, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office said.
Under New Jersey law, Thomas Paolino, 20, must serve 85 percent of his sentence, about 20 years, without parole.
He was arrested April 7, 2008, four days after the body of Jessica Tush, also of Staten Island, was found in Wharton State Park.
The Pine Barrens have long been a burial ground for murder victims amd were featured on national television in 2001, when mobsters in an episode of the HBO series The Sopranos attempted to bury a body there.