John Mahoney will be sentenced Thursday morning for fatally shooting his father 8 years ago in their Piscataway home.
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Nearly a year after he was convicted of killing his father, John Mahoney will be sentenced Thursday morning for a crime that shocked the Piscataway community eight years ago.
Mahoney, 27, was acquitted of murder, but convicted of aggravated manslaughter, hindering his own apprehension and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose on March 12, 2015 in the fatal shooting of his father, Jerry, 49.
The elder Mahoney was a 26-year veteran of the Piscataway Police Department, a member of the township's board of education and a beloved member of the Piscataway community when he was killed in December 2007.
The younger Mahoney's defense was that his father repeatedly verbally and physically abused him for much of his life. He claimed that he suffered from battered child's syndrome.
The prosecution argued Mahoney, who was 19 when he killed his father, was spoiled, greedy and angry at the strict rules his father set down for him to follow.
Superior Court Judge Michael Toto, who presided over the lengthy trial last year, set May 5, 2015, as a sentencing date, but before Mahoney could be sentenced, two of the jurors wrote letters to the judge and the defense, asking if they could speak at the sentencing and ask for leniency for Mahoney.
Toto ruled they could, but his ruling was appealed by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. An appeals court overruled the judge late last month and further ruled that jurors could not participate in the sentencing of defendants they convicted.
Jerry Mahoney, who also handled the police department's juvenile cases, was shot three times in the head shortly after 7 a.m. Dec. 27, 2007, as he lay in a recliner in the home he shared with his son.
John Mahoney first told 911 that an intruder came in and shot him and his father, but later acknowledged to authorities he shot his father, however he said it was an accident.
He did not reveal that he was abused until he spoke with a psychologist hired by his original defense team to examine him in July 2008.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.