A lawyer for a man accused of strangling his childhood friend during a robbery and throwing her body off a New Jersey bridge said on Wednesday that his client made up stories as part of a horror film plot.
Liam McAtasney’s attorney, Charles Moriarty, made the claim during a hearing in Freehold where he unsuccessfully sought to have a judge dismiss a murder indictment against McAtasney.
Monmouth County prosecutors say the 20-year-old Neptune City man killed 19-year-old Sarah Stern on December 2, 2016, during a robbery that netted $10,000.
Murder suspect Liam McAtasney, 20 (pictured left in court on Wednesday), has denied killing his longtime friend Sarah Stern, 19 (right) as part of a robbery plot
Prosecutors say after McAtasney strangled the woman to death, he and an accomplice dumped her body off of this Belmar, New Jersey, bridge. It was never recovered
Moriarty told state Superior Court Judge Richard English that McAtasney’s acquaintance was making a horror movie and told detectives that the suspect was ‘always making things up to be more interesting.’
Police say the acquaintance secretly recorded McAtasney confessing to the crime. Moriarty is seeking to have that recording excluded from evidence at his upcoming trial.
McAtasney’s friend Preston Taylor, 20, has said he helped him dump Stern’s body off of the Route 35 Bridge in Belmar over the Shark River Inlet. Stern’s body has never been found.
Taylor pleaded guilty last April to charges of robbery, conspiracy, disturbing or desecrating human remains and hindering apprehension.
In return, Monmouth County prosecutors agreed to drop a felony murder charge he also faced in Stern’s death.
Taylor has agreed to testify against McAtasney, who has pleaded not guilty to murder. McAtasney faces a life sentence if convicted of murder at trial.
Cooperating witness: McAtasney’s friend Preston Taylor (left), 20, has said he helped him dump Stern’s body off of the bridge in exchange for money
Michael Stern, Sarah Stern’s father, wipes his eyes in court last year as Taylor answers questions about his role in the murder of his daughter
Long history: Taylor was Stern’s junior prom date (pictured) and the two were longtime friends
Other charges against McAtasney include felony murder, conspiracy, desecrating human remains, tampering with evidence and hindering apprehension or prosecution.
The two men were longtime friends of Stern’s and Taylor was her junior prom date.
Prosecutors have said McAtasney strangled Stern in her Neptune City home, robbed her of the money she had received from her grandmother, then called Taylor and asked him to help dispose of her body.
Taylor said last year that they loaded Stern’s body into her car, then drove it and another vehicle to the bridge in Belmar where they threw her body into the river.
He said they left Stern’s car on the bridge, with the keys still in the ignition, to make her death look like a suicide.
Taylor also admitted knowing about McAtasney’s plot to rob and kill Stern, and said he received a share of the robbery’s proceeds.