Michelle Lodzinski, now 49 years old, faces possible life in prison for the death of her 5-year-old son, Timothy Wiltsey, more than 25 years ago.
NEW BRUNSWICK--Michelle Lodzinski will learn her fate Thursday morning.
The 49-year-old former South Amboy mother, convicted in May of first-degree murder in the death of her kindergarten-age son more than 25 years ago, is facing 30 years to life in prison when she appears in court for sentencing.
Under state statute, the minimum term Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves can impose in the case is 30 years with no parole eligibility, say legal experts. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence. A single mother of two boys, Lodzinski has been in custody since her arrest in August 2014.
One of the state's most notorious cold cases, the charges against Lodzinski came decades after the disappearance of her 5-year-old boy, Timothy Wiltsey in May 1991. At the time, Lodzinski told authorities her son disappeared from a carnival in Sayreville after she turned her back for a moment to buy a soda. She later claimed he had been abducted.
Volunteers searched for months for the Timmy, whose image later appeared on milk cartons to raise the awareness of missing children. But 11 months later, his skeletal remains were found in a swampy area of the Raritan Center in Edison.
A cause of death was never established because of the deterioration of the few bones found.
With no forensic evidence, traces of DNA or eyewitnesses, the case remained in limbo for decades, despite a series of changing stories by Lodzniski about what had happened the day of the carnival, her often bizarre behavior in the days and months after her son vanished, and the unshaken belief by homicide detectives that she had committed murder.
Michelle Lodzinski convicted of murder
The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office reopened the case after detectives began re-interviewing witnesses and showed a blue-and-white blanket found near Timothy's body to Lodzinski's niece, who often would baby-sit the boy. She identified it as coming from the boy's home.
In August 2014, by then living in Florida with two teenage sons born after Timothy's death, Lodzinski was arrested near her home in Port St. Lucie--on the day of Timmy's birthday--and charged in his death.
Lodzinski, who did not testify during her trial, was convicted by a jury of seven men and five women after eight weeks of testimony from 68 witnesses, including retired police officers who had been involved in the case, as well as former neighbors and boyfriends.
Defense attorney Gerald Krovatin, in court hearings last year seeking a mistrial after the verdict, argued that the case had been entirely circumstantial, with no cause of death, no history of abuse, no evidence linking the blanket to the Lodzinski home, and no eyewitnesses. The attorney said the verdict hinged on the emotional impact of the death of a 5-year-old boy.
Krovatin also argued that the actions of the former jury foreman during the trial had prejudiced Lodzinski. The unnamed juror had searched the internet for the FBI's investigatory protocols, in violation of the judge's instructions, after the retired special agent who had found the baby blanket at the center of the prosecutor's case testified that he never photographed the crime scene, claiming it was not routinely done in the 1990s.
The foreman discovered otherwise and related that information to other jurors. Nieves replaced the foreman with an alternate, and after four more hours of deliberation, the jury came back the next day with a guilty verdict.
The judge in October denied the request for a new trial, and said Lodzinski had received a fair trial.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.