Ocean County Man Pleads Guilty to Aggravated Manslaughter

Six and a half years to the day after it happened, a man from Lakewood has pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in connection to the stabbing death of a man in 2015.

Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer says 38-year-old Darneil Reeves now faces 20 years in state prison.

According to authorities, the scene unfolded on June 22, 2015, when,

Lakewood Township Police Officers, who were working an off-duty road detail, witnessed a motor vehicle crash into a telephone pole at the intersection of John Street and River Avenue in Lakewood. As Officers approached the vehicle, Hassan Parker, 32, of South Toms River, exited the vehicle, indicated that he had been stabbed, and collapsed. Shortly thereafter, paramedics arrived on scene; once in the ambulance, Mr. Parker expressed that Reeves was the individual who stabbed him.

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Parker was taken to an area hospital where he died from his injuries.

An investigation did determine that Reeves stabbed Parker in the chest in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Center Street. Parker fled the scene and then crashed into that utility pole.

Days later, Reeves surrendered to the United States Marshals Fugitive Task Force and has been held in the Ocean County Jail since.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 11th.