Police say a 49-year-old man from Florida hired and paid a man and a woman to go to New Jersey and attack a woman he had a relationship with before with acid.
William DiBernardino, of Boynton Beach, and the two men he hired, Betty Jo Lane, 38, and Jmarr McNeil, 39, both of Jacksonville, were caught last week in Florida in connection with the attack on July 26. This was announced by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey.
The prosecutor’s office said that all three refused to be extradited and are now being held in jail in Florida until they can be taken to New Jersey.
They are accused of planning to kill someone, attempting to kill someone, aggravated attack, stalking, and having a gun for an illegal reason. It wasn’t clear right away if they had lawyers or where they were being held in jail. When asked for feedback, the Monroe Police Department did not respond right away.
As acting head of detectives for the prosecutor’s office, Tom Gilbert said that the woman’s relationship with DiBernardino ended within the last year in a way that “he was unhappy with.”
Gilbert said in a Thursday phone interview, “We’re very sure he hired these people to do what he wanted, and it’s clear they did. That’s why all three of them are charged.”
As the 42-year-old woman drove home from work in Monroe Township, in southern New Jersey, last month, the attack happened. The prosecutor’s office said she had parked in her garage. prosecutors say that as she opened her car door, a woman approached her and threw a cup full of “a highly caustic acid” straight at her. She got chemical burns on more than three-quarters of her body and was flown to a burn center, where she is still getting care.
Prosecutors said the woman who threw the acid got away in a car that turned out to have been rented in Florida.
The Monroe Police Department and the prosecutor’s office sent people to Florida to help with the investigation. The Boynton Beach Police Department, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the Fort Pierce Police Department, and the U.S. Marshals Service were some of the other agencies that went with them.