'Suitcase killer' bashes lawyer: This week in Central Jersey history, July 8-14

On Friday, July 11, 2014, it was reported that Melanie McGuire, 41 ― a former Woodbridge resident convicted of killing her husband, dismembering his body, packing it in suitcases and tossing it off a bridge in Virginia ― said her former high-profile attorney, Joseph Tacopina, could have done a better job during her 2007 trial.

McGuire was serving a life sentence for the Wednesday, April 28, 2004, murder of William McGuire.

Here's a look at events that happened in Central Jersey from five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years ago this week.

Five years ago

July 9, 2019: In the District 10 Tournament final, the Milltown Little League baseball team beat Sayreville, 3-2, to win its first District title since 2006.

July 10: It was reported Dori Alvich became the Monroe school district's first female superintendent of schools when she took over her new position on Monday, July 1, 2019.

July 10: George Rayford, 39, of Rahway, was sentenced to 13 years in state prison for selling crack cocaine laced with fentanyl that killed three people and hospitalized others, all in the same day, it was reported.

July 12: It was reported multi-Blues Music Award winning guitarist Duke Robillard, who was touring in support of his latest Stony Plains Records LP, "Ear Worms," would be returning from a European trek to perform on July 17, 2019, at Parker Press Park in Woodbridge.

July 12: Matthew D. Ellery, 29, of Middlesex Borough, a Franklin Township police officer, pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and driving while intoxicated while on duty in April 2019.

July 13: In 2018, more than $15.6 billion in construction was approved by NJ communities, it was reported.

July 13: Joshua Padilla, 33, a Middlesex County Sheriff's Deputy who lived in Eatontown, was indicted in connection with producing, distributing and possessing child pornography.

10 years ago

July 8, 2014: State Senate President Stephen Sweeney visited the Division Street office of the NJ Center for Tourette Syndrome and Associated Disorders in Somerville. The center received $250,000 in the latest state budget, bringing it back to 2010 levels.

July 9: With heroin use at epidemic levels in Hunterdon County, and thanks to a $2,500 donation from Hunterdon Healthcare Systems, the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office would be training police officers how to administer an aerosol form of Narcan, a drug which can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose, it was reported.

July 11: It was reported the Branchburg Township health department was asking residents to make sure their pets were vaccinated against rabies after two wild animals were discovered with rabies within the past week.

July 11: Mark Walker, 27, of Neptune, was sentenced to nine years in state prison for a 2010 home invasion in Somerville.

July 11: Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers, with Eddie "Kingfish" Manion, the Matt O'Ree Band, Milly and Rust on the Carousel, performed at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

July 13: The state Department of Health said blood donations had dropped appreciably in recent years, and the blood supply in NJ hospitals had fallen out of the comfort zone, it was reported.

July 14: Players and cheerleaders from the Middlesex County all-star team made their annual visit to the Lakeview School in Edison, which had preceded the MyCentralJersey.com Snapple Bowl against Union County for the past 21 summers.

1999

July 8, 1999: Dane Ellis, an aspiring rapper from the Somerset section of Franklin, accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend, Sakeera S. Stokes, 18, when she broke up with him, was indicted on murder and assault charges.

July 9: A jury found William Eatman guilty of murdering his longtime girlfriend, Dorothy Nicholson, 48, in front of their 9-year-old son in the home they shared in Edison.

July 10: Franklin Andreyko, 13, of Manville, qualified for the Junior Olympics in the long jump by winning a regional competition at Rutgers University with a leap of 18-feet 11 3/4 inches.

July 11: Hundreds of spectators lined up on the Main Street bridge in Clinton Town to see some 1,400 rubber ducks compete in The Great Hunterdon Rubber Ducky Race, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, in the Raritan River.

July 12: Veterinarian Howard Baker was found guilty of 14 counts of animal cruelty to dogs and cats he treated at his East Brunswick practice.

July 14: About 1,100 fans flocked to the renovated Strand Theater in Plainfield for the first American showing of "Mann," a top film from India.

1974

July 8: The Democratic-controlled Senate passed by 24-13 a bill defining the kind of "thorough and efficient" education Gov. Brendan Byrne's income tax package would support.

July 9: A smoky fire damaged the building housing Paramount Industries and Capitol Foam Products on South Second Street and Rock Avenue on the Plainfield-Piscataway border.

July 9: In the American Legion Baseball League, Colonia beat Iselin, 6-2, behind the two-hit pitching of Wayne Smith.

July 10: A special Union County Grand Jury indicted first-term state Assemblyman Arnold J. D'Ambrosa of Rahway on charges he embezzled municipally-owned property for his own gain in his capacity as superintendent of public works.

July 11: The Somerset Hills Concert Band presented the second in a series of concerts at Ridge High School in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township.

1924

July 8: George Mesaurus, 14, of Carteret, drowned in the Rahway River at Carteret while his 8-year-old brother, Charles, and three other companions looked on, unable to help him.

July 9: A train from New Brunswick on the Millstone branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad became a snake-like mass of wreckage at Howell's Crossing, about a quarter-mile from the East Millstone station when it hit the rear end of a five-ton Mack truck. One person was injured.

July 10: It was reported Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield had its first woman intern, Dr. Elizabeth Topkins, of Califon, being one of three recently appointed by the Board of Governors.

July 11-12: The movie, "Poisoned Paradise," starring Clara Bow and Kenneth Harlan, was shown at Reade's Strand Theatre in Perth Amboy.

July 12: William Nestor, a detective and former football star of Rutgers College, was seriously wounded by a man who fired two bullets into the detective's abdomen after walking into Newark police headquarters and announcing he wanted to report a holdup.

July 14: The Queen City Wheelmen baseball team advanced a step closer to the championship of the second half of the City Twilight League by defeating the Public Service, 4-3.

Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ history for July 8-14