What to Know
- A teenager charged with shooting and killing his parents, sister and a family friend has been ordered to remain jailed while he awaits trial
- Scott Kologi's attorneys sought to have him transferred to a psychiatric facility, saying he is autistic and suffers from hallucinations
- Kologi allegedly killed his mother, father, sister and a family friend who lived with them on New Year's Eve 2017
A teenager charged with shooting and killing his parents, sister and a family friend has been ordered to remain jailed while he awaits trial.
Defense attorneys for Scott Kologi had sought Tuesday to have him transferred to a psychiatric facility because they say he is autistic and suffers from hallucinations.
The 18-year-old faces murder and weapons charges stemming from the shooting at his family’s Long Branch home on New Year's Eve 2017.
His brother and grandfather and another friend were in the house at the time of the shooting but escaped unharmed.
A motive for the then-16-year-old boy to commit such a shocking massacre against his family remains a mystery. The case initially was housed in Family Court but last month a judge approved prosecutors’ request to move it to adult court.
Kologi, of Long Branch, faces a minimum sentence of 30 years in state prison without parole for each of the four counts of first-degree murder. He also faces a weapons charge.
Local
He allegedly shot all four victims -- Steven and Linda Kologi, 44 and 42 respectively; 18-year-old Brittany Kologi; and 70-year-old Mary Schultz, who lived in the home, multiple times just before the Times Square ball dropped to ring in 2018.
Prosecutors initially said Kologi allegedly went room to room to find his victims. Prosecutors also have said the semi-automatic rifle used in the killings was legally owned by someone in the home, but have provided no other details.
