Toms River, NJ- A Seaside Heights man has pled guilty to aggravated manslaughter in connection with the death of Alecia Perreault, 29, also of Seaside Heights. On Friday, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said Gerardo Ruiz, 51, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter for the death that occurred on May 1st, 2021, at the Offshore Motel.
According to police at around 7:30 a.m. The department received a 911 call from a third party claiming Ruiz had just killed a woman Inside the motel. That caller told police that Ruiz was staying at the nearby Surfside Motel in Seaside Heights.
“Officers responded to a room at the Offshore Motel, where they located the body of Ms. Perreault with apparent wounds to her neck; Ms. Perreault was pronounced deceased at the scene. Officers subsequently responded to Ruiz’s room at the Surfside Motel, and discovered that he had experienced an apparent drug overdose. Ruiz was thereafter transported to Community Medical Center in Toms River – under the protective custody of the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office,” police said in their report at the time of the murder.