Scott J. Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the brutal knife-and-hammer attack that claimed the life of John Amendola.
WOOD-RIDGE - A judge on Wednesday sentenced a former Hasbrouck Heights police officer to 25 years in prison in the brutal slaying of his childhood friend.
Scott J. Smith, 37, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other charges in the brutal knife-and-hammer attack that claimed the life of John Amendola in 2011, according to northjersey.com.
Smith admitted he got into a dispute over money with Amendola and stabbed him several times before striking him with a hammer.
An autopsy showed Amendola suffered more than 40 knife wounds all over his body, many of them defensive wounds. Prosecutors said Smith slammed Amendola's head into a wall and fractured his skull with the hammer.
Authorities said Smith had a history of disciplinary problems while on the Hasbrouck Height police force. At the time of the killing he was in a court-supervised drug treatment program.
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