A Lakewood man has been sentenced to 25 years in state prison after pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter for a stabbing death that occurred in Lakewood in 2020.
On August 31, 2020, Officers from the Lakewood Township Police Department were summoned to a business on 2nd Street in Lakewood in response to multiple 911 calls indicating that an individual had been stabbed at that location.
Responding officers found Rodrigo Jimenez-Paz, 29, of Lakewood, with a stab wound to his chest. Medical units transported Mr. Jimenez-Paz to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune; lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful, and he was subsequently pronounced deceased.
An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit, and Lakewood Police Department, identified Jorge Santiago-Garcia as the individual who stabbed Mr. Jimenez-Paz.
Santiago-Garcia was taken into custody at the scene, and has been lodged in the Ocean County Jail since his arrest.