NJ, 19, man gets decades in prison for murder as teen in Asbury Park

🔶 NJ teen tried as adult
🔶 Convicted of murder
🔶 19-year-old gets decades in prison

A 19-year-old Asbury Park man who gunned down a young man nearly three years ago has been sentenced to 45 years in state prison.

Joseph Argilagos was convicted by a jury on all counts including murder, after a two-week trial in December.

Dariel Vernet, also of Asbury Park, was killed after being shot five times.

Argilagos, who was 16 at the time of the killing, was tried as an adult after the motion by prosecutors was granted in September 2023.

He was sentenced on Tuesday by Monmouth County Superior Court Jill Grace O’Malley.

Before handing down the sentence, the judge said the killing showed premeditation, Asbury Park Press reported.

On July 8, 2022, before 6 p.m. Asbury Park police responded to a report of gunfire in the 100 block of Prospect Avenue, near the intersection with Atlantic Avenue.

Officers found the 19-year-old Vernet with multiple gunshot wounds. He died within an hour at a local hospital.

Argilagos was arrested days after the shooting.

His co-defendant, Lydell Brown, was arrested in Toms River in May 2023 by local and county law enforcement along with the U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force.

The same jury failed to reach an agreement on charges against Brown, who then pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.

Brown, 21, is serving a five year prison term since being sentenced on March 12.

Argilagos must serve more than 38 years before the possibility of parole, under the state’s No Early Release Act.

He received an additional seven years for a weapons offense, which will run at the same time as the longer term.

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