Defendant Liam McAtasney looks toward the gallery where his family is seated, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, during his murder trial at the Monmouth County courthouse in Freehold, N.J. McAtasney is accused of killing Sarah Stern in December 2016. (Patti Sapone/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool)
FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — A man accused of strangling a former high school classmate described how it took her a half-hour to die and he had timed it on his phone.
Jurors on Thursday watched the secretly recorded video of the conversation between Liam McAtasney and the witness that was taped before McAtasney and an accomplice were charged with killing 19-year-old Sarah Stern during a $10,000 robbery in 2016.
McAtasney says in the video he “pretty much hung her” and then shoved a shirt down her throat and placed his finger on her nose.
He says the biggest problem was Stern’s dog, which “laid there and watched as I killed her.”
McAtasney then described throwing Stern’s body off a bridge. Her body has never been found.
The defense claims there is no physical evidence to support the accusations.
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