Video shows Marlboro man inflicting fatal beating and having wife cover it up: prosecutor

FREEHOLD — When police responded to a Marlboro home for a medical call early on New Year's Day, Carl A. Richards told them the man needing an ambulance - the longtime boyfriend of his deceased mother - was injured in a fight that stemmed from an argument over cigarettes.

But after George L. Mott III died from his injuries within the hour, a surveillance camera - set up by Richards and his wife in their bedroom "to watch themselves'' - instead served to destroy Richards' self-defense claim while supporting a murder charge against him, an assistant prosecutor said in court Tuesday.

The camera first captured 39-year-old Richards, at 230 pounds, delivering a relentless, brutal beating to the 64-year-old, 140-pound victim, Caitlin Sidley, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, said at a detention hearing for Richards.

It showed that Richards' wife, Amanda, waited more than an hour after the assault to request an ambulance for the dying man, Sidley said.

And, the bedroom video also showed Amanda Richards pummeling her husband with her closed fists about an hour after the assault on Mott, before she called for an ambulance for him. Sidley said that was an effort to obstruct justice to make it look like her husband was injured in a fight with the victim.

Defense attorney Antonio Toto said Carl Richards acted in self-defense in the deadly fight with Mott.

But, after Sidley played the graphic, bedroom video clips in the courtroom, Superior Court Judge Paul X. Escandon said, "I don't see any claim of self defense.''

Escandon ordered Carl Richards held in the Monmouth County Jail without bail to await trial in the case.

The defendant was originally charged with aggravated manslaughter, based on his claims that he only struck Mott several times after he accused Mott of stealing cigarettes from him and claiming that Mott struck him first, Sidley said. The charge was upgraded to murder as the investigation progressed, and a medical examiner determined Mott suffered fractures to his orbital bone, nose, the base of his skull and the hyoid bone in his neck, and that the cause of his death was blunt force trauma, Sidley said.

Richards also is charged with three counts of child endangerment related to his three children who were home when the deadly assault took place. Sidley said they went to hide in a closet for as long as an hour and a half to escape it.

Amanda Richards is being held in the jail, scheduled for a detention hearing on Friday. She also is charged with child endangerment, as well as obstruction of justice.

The bedroom camera videos showed the stories Carl Richards told police when they responded to his home on Texas Road after the initial 12:49 a.m. 911 call on Jan. 1 were all lies, Sidley said.

The video evidence showed the assault on Mott took place not in the living room of the home, as Richards said it did, but in the Richards' bedroom, and it started at 11:45 p.m. on Dec. 31, more than an hour before the 911 call for help, Sidley said.

The assistant prosecutor played the graphic video in the courtroom for the judge. It showed Carl Richards repeatedly punching Mott in the head and also kicking him while the victim was on the ground. It also showed Mott crawling out of the room, and Richards following him and kicking him some more.

Members of Mott's family filled the first row of the courtroom. A number of them could be heard sobbing while the video was shown on a giant screen.

At 12:38 p.m. on Dec. 31, another video from the bedroom camera depicted Carl Richards, without any marks on his face and body, going to the bedroom, where his wife proceeded to punch him in the face repeatedly, Sidley noted.

"The defendant encouraged her to make a fist and strike him over and over again,'' the assistant prosecutor said.

One of the couple's children could be seen in the room on the video while this was transpiring, crying and putting her hands over her face.

Mott, meanwhile, had been moved to his recliner in the living room, where he was throwing up and aspirating on his own blood, Sidley said. Carl and Amanda Richards had staged the living room to make it look like that is where the fight occurred, she said.

When police arrived, Richards had two bruised eyes, Sidley said.

The couple's children were later interviewed by investigators.

They described seeing Mott's badly injured face and saying "their pop-pop was really, really bad,'' Sidley said.

One of the children told investigators the father told Mott, "you'd be dead right now if it wasn't for these kids,'" Sidley said.

The children also reported past assaults their father committed on their mother, including ripping off her eyebrow, punching her and breaking her nose, Sidley said.

While Carl Richards told police he had no animosity toward Mott, other family members said Richards believed Mott's neglect was the reason for his mother's death, Sidley said. Mott had been the boyfriend of Richards' mother for about 20 years, she said. The Richards moved in with Mott to assist him after the death of Richard's mother, she said.

Toto said Mott had a long-term drug and alcohol problem, and he believed it contributed to his death, but there's been no information so far on any toxicology reports.

"I want to see his toxicology report,'' Toto said. "I think it's going to be very telling.''

Toto told the judge that Mott and Carl Richards had both apologized to each other after the fight.

Sidley said Carl and Amanda Richards had been drinking shots of Fireball that night. Carl Richards said he only had 1 1/2 shots and was "buzzed,'' but not intoxicated, but Amanda Richards was highly intoxicated and could not account for why it took her more than an hour to call 911, Sidley said. Amanda Richards also had little memory of cleaning up blood from the scene, the assistant prosecutor said.

Escandon called the evidence against Carl Richards "very damning,'' counting about 20 blows to Mott's head before Richards was seen on the video kicking him.

Escandon scheduled Carl Richards' next court appearance for Feb. 20 before Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.

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This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Marlboro bedroom video shows deadly beating over stolen cigarettes