An aspiring mobster and the 36-year-old man convicted of tricking him into killing an Edison man with a pickaxe in 2011 were sentenced Thursday.
NEW BRUNSWICK -- An aspiring mobster and the 36-year-old man convicted of tricking him into killing an Edison man with a pickaxe six years ago were sentenced Thursday to 30 years in state prison.
Daniel Medaglia, 32, of Edison, and Michael Doce, of the Colonia section of Woodbridge, were sentenced to the 30 years in prison and five years of parole in the death of 28-year-old Kelvin Dumo, whose body was found in a Sayreville industrial site on the morning of Nov. 7, 2011.
Doce concocted an intricate eight-month narrative and bragged about his fictitious ties to organized crime to manipulate Medaglia into carrying out the murder, prosecutors said. Medaglia, who has admitted to fatally bludgeoning Dumo, was the state's key witness in the case against Doce and has said he thought the murder was a $50,000 Mafia hit.
One of the most powerful moments during the sentencing came when Dumo's mother, Neida Dumo, told Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves that her only son was loved by many people. She said Doce and Medaglia have shown no remorse in the nearly six years her family has attended court hearings.
"I'm thankful that this day has finally come," she said. "Neither of them has a conscious."
Doce and Medaglia sat in silence in handcuffs and green, court-issued jumpsuits as about 20 people listened in the courtroom. When asked if they would like to speak at their separate hearings, Doce slightly shook his head no while Medaglia apologized to Dumo's family.
After a six-week trial, a jury in June found Doce guilty of murder and conspiracy charges. Medaglia struck a deal with prosecutors for 30 years in prison in exchange for his testimony against Doce.
12 key moments from pickaxe murder trial
Before Medaglia was sentenced, his defense attorney, Howard Barman, told the judge he should reconsider the plea deal and sentence Medaglia to less time than Doce, who was sentenced earlier in the day. In his argument, Barman said Adolf Hitler and one of his followers would not have received the same sentence.
"Without Mr. Medaglia, there wouldn't have been a conviction. And without Mr. Doce, there wouldn't have been a murder," Barman said.
The judge did not throw out the plea agreement. He said even though Doce persuaded Medaglia to kill, he was the one who drove the pickaxe through Dumo's head.
During Doce's trial, Medaglia testified he yearned to become connected to organized crime and when he met Doce in 2009, he believed he had found his path to the criminal underworld in New Jersey.
Medaglia said from the stand he believed Doce when he claimed his Uncle Paulie ran the Genovese crime family in the Garden State. Medaglia thought Doce was a mob underboss.
"[Doce] said he was going to introduce me to members of the family," Medaglia said during his testimony. "Money. Cars. It was an attractive lifestyle."
The wanna-mobster also testified he thought a hit had been ordered on Dumo for $50,000, and since he introduced him to Doce, the contract was his responsibility.
"I was afraid I'd be murdered," Medaglia testified.
Doce's defense team has contended he is innocent in the killing and was joking with Medaglia as he texted wild stories of organized crime, often lifted from popular movies and shows, such as "The Sopranos" and "Goodfellas." He never meant for anyone to get hurt, his attorneys said.
On the evening of Nov. 6, 2011, Medaglia convinced Dumo to drive him to buy drugs at the Viking Terminal industrial site, a place Doce had bragged about killing nine people and hiding their remains with help from connected men on site, according to Medaglia's testimony.
After the two got out of the car, Medaglia swung a tire iron at Dumo's head as his back was turned. It flew out of his hand and the two fought before Medaglia grabbed a pickaxe that was "just lying there" and repeatedly struck Dumo, he testified.
After the killing, Ryan Morrell, 35, of Dunellen, picked Medaglia up and took him to Walmart to buy new clothes, according to testimony. Morrell pleaded guilty in 2014 to a charge of hindering Medaglia's arrest.
The judge sentenced Morrell on Thursday to a year of probation. Of the three defendants, Morrell appeared to show the most remorse in court, apologizing to the family and saying he never imagined the decision to pick up his friend that day would change his life.
"I feel for you," he said as he held back tears and raised his right hand in the direction of Dumo's family members seated in the second row.
Before Doce was sentenced, his defense team filed a motion for a retrial, arguing that the judge abused his discretion by exposing jurors to graphic photographs that one of his attorneys, Eric Breslin, described as "nothing but inflammatory."
Breslin said he would spend the rest of his career trying to get justice for Doce, who the judge described during Medaglia's sentencing as a pathological liar. Breslin said numerous people wrote letters to the judge in support of Doce.
Assistant Prosecutor Vincent Vitale said since the killing, the Dumo family has endured pain like he has never seen. As he showed a photograph of Dumo smiling on a projector screen, his mother, father and sister held hands.
"Michael Doce is a destroyer of lives," Vitale told the judge. "He's the center of all of this."
Luke Nozicka can be reached at lnozicka@njadvancemedia.com or on Twitter @lukenozicka.
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