Long Branch man who massacred his family on New year’s eve in 2017 sentenced to 150 years

Scott Kologi, a Long Branch man who fatally shot four members of his own family with a rifle on New Year’s Eve in 2017 has been sentenced to 150 years in state prison for the crime, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced.

Scott Kologi sentenced

Kologi, 20, was sentenced Thursday by Monmouth County Superior Court Criminal Division Presiding Judge Marc C. Lemieux. He must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence, or 127 ½ years, before becoming eligible for parole, under the terms of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act.

Kologi family

On New Year’s Eve, during a family party, Kologi, then 16, killed his sister, 18-year-old Brittany Kologi, his mother, 44-year-old Linda Kologi, his father, 42-year-old Steven Kologi, all of Long Branch, and also killed his grandfather’s companion, 70-year-old Mary Schulz, of Ocean Township.

Kologi’s attorneys argued that their client has severe mental illness which led him to kill his family. His lawyers asked for a sentence of 30 years.

Testimony during the trial revealed that Kologi’s mother didn’t want her son to tell his therapist that he thought about killing people because she was afraid he would be hospitalized, the Asbury Park Press reports.

Based on that revelation, Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Sean Brennan then argued for a much stronger sentence.

“These were acts of evil, carried out by someone who knew exactly what he was doing,” Brennan said, according to the press release from the prosecutor’s office. “He killed them because he could. He killed them because he wanted to.”

Monmouth County Supreme Court Judge Marc LeMieux said the quadruple slaying caused “immeasurable harm.” Kologi won’t be eligible for parole until 127 years and six months into his sentence.

“The intention of this court is that this defendant never see the light of the outside of a jail cell ever again,’’ LeMieux said during the hearing, according to the Asbury Park Press. “I hope one day, you realize the magnitude of what you’ve done here.”

Killed his family without a care

The night of the brutal killing, Kologi called his mother up to his room, where he had the lights off, and shot her dead. He then shot and killed his father who rushed up to see what was going on.

Scott Kologi of Long Branch

After killing his parents, he then “casually” murdered his sister, who was home from her first semester in college, and family friend Schulz, Brennan said.

Kologi put earplugs in to protect himself from the sound of the high-powered weapon and even researched whether that weapon would be effective against police officers if they responded with bulletproof vests before he carried out his evil plan, prosecutors said.

Kologi’s brother and grandfather, who were also home, were able to escape from the house.

“Even though they physically survived,” Brennan said, “they will still have to deal with the mental scars of what they saw.”