TOMS RIVER, NJ — In an unsettling revelation during a criminal pre-trial release hearing, prosecutors in Ocean County detailed the days before a nearly seven hour stand off between police and double murder accomplices Maxwell Johnston and Elizabeth Mascaerelli at a home in Toms River.
That testimony described how Johnston killed a single mother in broad daylight on a road in Manchester, then killed the man who lived at the Ravenwood Drive home, before dismembering his body and dumping it in a burn barrel in Jackson Township.
According to prosecutors, a disturbing photograph found on the cell phone of Elizabeth C. Mascarelli, a woman accused of harboring a fugitive, has exposed the gruesome killing and dismemberment of the Toms River man.
Court documents reveal that the image showed Mascarelli and Maxwell A. Johnston posing with a clearly deceased man, identified as Kerry M. Rollason, 56, of Toms River. The victim appeared amputated at the top of his legs with a hatchet embedded in his chest, with Mascarelli holding the hatchet’s handle.
Msacarelli also took photos of herself with the alleged killer during the police standoff.
While Mascarelli’s legal counsel said she acted out of fear of Johnston, and has a history of substance abuse, prosecutors made the case that she was right there by his side, willingly, as a partner through the ordeal.
The photo surfaced during a detention hearing for Mascarelli in Ocean County Superior Court on Wednesday morning. Several other images on Mascarelli’s phone contributed to police uncovering the murder of Rollason.
On July 5, law enforcement arrived at a home in Seaside Heights to arrest Johnston, 35, for the June 27 killing of Gabriella Caroleo, 25, of Manchester. While three individuals fled the scene, Mascarelli stayed behind during the nearly seven-hour standoff that ended with Johnston, a reputed Bloods gang member, committing suicide.
Prior to the standoff, Mascarelli romantacized her role in the two killings. She later exited the house after suffering head injuries from a police deployed flash-bang grenade.
Johnston was found dead, from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Mascarelli, along with Danielle M. Bolstad of Barnegat, who had her detention hearing the same morning, and Jared M. Krysiak of Brick Township, held later that day, are currently detained pending trial. Jarred Palumbo of Manchester was charged on July 13 but was released on a summons.
Bolstedm and Kysiak were both involved in the transport of Rollason’s body from Toms River to Jackson. Palumbo’s attorney claimed he was not part of the gruesome events by his alleged co-conspirators. He has not been incarcerated despite being charged with transporting the man’s dismembered body.
