Full Statement From Monmouth County Prosecutor On Clemency Granted To Maria Montalvo, Who Killed Her 2 Kids

UNION BEACH, NJ — Here is the full statement, in its entirety, the Monmouth County Prosecutor gave to the Asbury Park Press regarding Gov. Phil Murphy's decision, on his final day in office Tuesday, to issue a clemency pardon to Maria Montalvo, a Union Beach woman serving 100 years in prison for burning her two small children alive, killing them.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago also released this statement to Patch, but it was the Asbury Park Press newspaper that first asked the prosecutor for his reaction to Murphy's clemency approval for Montalvo.

It was Murphy who nominated Santiago, in 2022, to serve as Monmouth County Prosecutor. Montalvo has maintained she is innocent, and as recently as December, the state public's defender's office was asking for a new trial for her, arguing that forensic evidence science has changed.

Here is Prosecutor Santiago's statement, in full:

"Before commenting directly on former Governor Murphy’s announcement, we feel that we first must offer a solemn reminder of precisely why Maria Montalvo was serving a 100-year prison sentence.

On Tuesday, February 22, 1994, the defendant secured her daughter, 18-month-old Zoraida-Angelin Aponte, and her son, 28-month-old Rafael-Louis Aponte, in her Volkswagen Jetta. She then made a brief pit stop at a local gas station to purchase $3 of gasoline, pumped into a plastic container. She then drove to her in-laws’ home on Buttonwood Avenue in Long Branch, doused her children with the gasoline, and ignited it, killing them both.

A jury of her peers unanimously convicted her of murder in November 1996. The jury rejected any claim that her actions were anything except intentional. The next month, the jury deadlocked, unable to reach a unanimous decision on whether she should die via lethal injection. She was then sentenced, with 60 years of her term to be served before the possibility of parole. She was to become eligible for parole in 2054, at the age of 90.

Until Governor Murphy undid that with the stroke of a pen, moments before leaving office.

I cannot express strongly enough our office’s collective revulsion and disbelief upon hearing this news. Viewing it through different lenses or from different perspectives does not mitigate our outrage; it magnifies it.

First, consider the jury, which was asked to sacrifice so much of their collective time, energy and emotional stamina in answering the call to service, painstakingly weighing the facts, reaching the firm conclusion that a conviction was warranted, and so passionately voicing their genuinely held beliefs regarding whether capital punishment was merited that published reports described loud verbal disagreements spilling from behind sequestered doors into the parking lot outside.

Second, consider the public servants, who extinguished the car fire, separated the victims’ tiny bodies from the charred hulk of the vehicle, performed their autopsies, collected the necessary evidence, prosecuted the case to conviction, and to this point, successfully defended the integrity of the result from multiple angles of appeal – all while the defendant blamed everyone but herself, never taking responsibility for her own actions.

Finally, and by far most importantly, consider Zoraida and Rafael – who should be 33 and 34 today, respectively. It is one injustice that they died at the hands of the one person who was supposed to love them most. It is another injustice that they perished in such gruesome fashion – while their horrified father and grandparents looked on – their final moments mired in unimaginable pain, terror, and agony. It is yet another injustice that in doing so, they were robbed of the opportunity to experience virtually every typically eagerly anticipated milestone in what should have been long, fruitful and fulfilling lives. They were not provided the leniency of any second chances. They were handed a death sentence for the crime of being the children of Maria Montalvo.

These injustices are why our criminal justice system exists: for an opportunity to correct them, at least to the degree we are able. Providing this defendant the opportunity to apply for an early parole, with a full half of her sentence still to be served, is the polar opposite of justice.

It should go without saying that a mother’s role in any civilized society is to simply nurture, support and perhaps above all, protect her children, leveraging an inherent brand of unconditional love. How a mother who instead heartlessly took her own children’s lives in unspeakably cruel fashion could ever be viewed as a suitable candidate for leniency is not a concept we are able to defend or comprehend.

We thank the Asbury Park Press and its staff for bringing attention to this case and many similar others, with an eye on questioning whether justice is being served."

The two state lawmakers who represent Union Beach, Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger and Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn, both Republican, also called Murphy's decision "disgraceful." Montalvo is immediately eligible for parole based on good behavior in prison.

The state lawmakers said Murphy's decision "crosses a moral line and undermines public trust in the justice system."

"On his final day in office, Governor Phil Murphy made a disgraceful decision to grant clemency in a case involving the intentional killing of two children. There is no circumstance, no passage of time and no political rationale that can justify such an act," they said. "Some acts are simply unforgivable, and the intentional killing of children is among them. Clemency is an extraordinary power meant for rare cases where justice has failed. It is not meant for crimes that shock the conscience or cause irreversible harm. Granting clemency in this case dishonors the victims, retraumatizes their families, and diminishes the severity of the crime."

On his final day in office, Murphy granted clemency to 148 people. Twenty four of those 148 prisoners were serving lengthy prison sentences — some life sentences — for murder, felony murder or manslaughter; one committed vehicular homicide.

In total, during his two terms in office, Murphy granted clemency to 455 prisoners, more than every other governor in the past 30 years combined.

"That record raises serious concerns about judgment and accountability," said Scharfenberger, of Middletown, and Flynn, a Holmdel resident.

The ACLU-NJ applauded the Murphy's pardons and clemency approvals this week.

“Redemption is possible,” Jeanne LoCicero, the organization’s legal director, told NJ Spotlight News. “And the Murphy administration’s clemency work has moved us toward a stronger, more equitable New Jersey for everyone.”

Woman Who Killed Her 2 Children In Monmouth Co. Granted Clemency By Outgoing Gov. Murphy (Wednesday)