Teen pleads for ‘2nd chance’ after killing his mother in Toms River parking lot

TOMS RIVER — A young man who admitted killing his mother in front of his younger brother was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Friday.

Edgar Diaz, 18, attacked his mother, stabbed her with a knife and slammed her head into the pavement outside their vehicle parked at a medical office complex in Toms River on Aug. 7, prosecutors said. Margarita Diaz, 44, of Manchester, died from the wounds.

Diaz was arrested nearly a week later and charged at the time as a juvenile.

In January, Diaz voluntarily waived jurisdiction of the case from Family Court to be prosecuted as an adult. He pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter on Jan. 28.

During the sentencing on Friday, Assistant Prosecutor Madeline Buczynski revealed that Diaz and his mother had been arguing about him talking to a stranger on the internet, according to NJ.com coverage of the hearing.

The argument continued on the car ride to the office park, where Edgar's father worked. When they arrived, Edgar cut his mother's face with a crude homemade knife, the prosecutor said.

Edgar Diaz tearfully told the court that his mother came to him in a dream and said she forgave him, according to the NJ.com report.

His father, through an interpreter, asked the judge to give his son a "second chance" at life.

Diaz must serve 85% of his sentence in state prison. He has been held in a juvenile facility since his arrest.