Struggling New Jersey artist robbed and murdered his childhood friend for $10,000
Liam McAtasney planned the murder with Preston Taylor, who had gone to junior prom with the victim and later turned cooperating witness
An artist from New Jersey who was struggling to make money reportedly robbed and murdered his childhood friend of $10,000, a star witness said in a testimony on Thursday.
The witness, identified as Preston Taylor, told the jurors that 21-year-old Liam McAtasney planned the murder in 2016 after he learned that his 19-year-old friend Sarah Stern had found a "shoebox full of money with a note from her mother."
Taylor, in his testimony on the first day of the murder trial in Monmouth County court, detailed how McAtasney strangled Stern in her home in Avon. Reports state that McAtasney mistakenly believed that there was $100,000 at stake and also roped in Taylor to carry out the robbery, according to the Asbury Park Press.