FREEHOLD, NJ—Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said Friday that two men from North Jersey have been sentenced to state prison for their participation in the 2017 armed house invasion and years-long stalking of a couple from Holmdel.
Judge Joseph W. Oxley of Monmouth County Superior Court sentenced James J. Mainello, 57, of Bayonne, and Thomas F. Manzo, 59, of Franklin Lakes, on January 8, 2025.
On October 23, 2024, Manzo entered a guilty plea to two charges of fourth-degree stalking, acknowledging that he had harassed two victims on multiple occasions between 2015 and 2019. For each offense, he was given the maximum penalty of 18 months in state prison, which would run simultaneously with the seven-year federal term he is now serving for an assault on one of the same victims in 2015 that was tied to racketeering.
Due to his involvement in the violent house invasion, Mainello entered a guilty plea on May 12, 2023, to second-degree conspiracy to conduct first-degree armed robbery. Under New Jersey’s No Early Release Act (NERA), he was given a seven-year sentence in state prison, with the requirement that he complete 85% of his term before being eligible for parole.
The case is related to a home invasion that occurred at a townhouse on Banyan Boulevard in Holmdel on May 13, 2017. Two victims who had been battered with a baseball bat and robbed of an engagement ring and $500 in cash were discovered by police after they responded to a late-night 911 call.
Following an investigation that uncovered Manzo’s involvement in stalking the victims and his knowledge of the planned robbery and assault carried out by Mainello and another unnamed person, DNA evidence led to Mainello’s arrest in May 2019.
