A 21-year-old New Jersey man who murdered his childhood pal to get his hands on her inheritance money was denied his request for a retrial Friday.
A lawyer for Liam McAtasney — who was convicted of murdering and robbing 19-year-old Sarah Stern — insisted he should get a redo in part because the cash grab was a theft, not a robbery.
“The evidence shows that there was a murder committed and that a theft was committed hours later. In other words, there is no robbery,” Carlos Diaz-Cobo told Monmouth County Judge Richard English.
Diaz-Cobo said the killer had slaughtered Stern, then left the scene and returned to swipe a safe containing thousands of dollars. “That would not make it a robbery, it would make it a theft,” he said.
But English rejected the argument.
“To me, this is a plan to rob and kill this young lady … It was a continuing course of conduct, part of a plan, and that’s what felony robbery is,” he said.
McAtasney hatched the murderous plot in 2016 after he found $10,000 in a shoebox with a note from Stern’s mother, who had recently died, authorities said.
His plan was to kill her, drive her car to the Route 35 bridge in Belmar and toss her corpse in the water — then leave the keys in the car to suggest a suicide, authorities said.