Ocean County Man Sentenced For The 2022 Attempted Murder Of A Woman

Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 7:00 A.M. ET. 3 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

POINT PLEASANT, NJ.- Last Friday, a 31-year-old former Point Pleasant Borough, New Jersey, man learned he will be spending the next decade in New Jersey State Prison after being sentenced for nearly strangling a woman to death inside her Point Pleasant Borough home back in the late summer of 2022.

     According to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer, on Friday, October 3, 2025, Juan Santiago-Rojas, 31, formerly of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, appeared in Ocean County Superior Court and was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Dina M. Vicari to ten years in State Prison for his previously entered guilty plea to Attempted Murder. 

     In handing down the sentence, Judge Vicari ordered the sentence to be subject to the No Early Release Act, which will require Santiago-Rojas to serve 85% of his custodial term before becoming eligible for parole. Santiago-Rojas previously pleaded guilty to the charge before Judge Vicari on August 18, 2025.

Sentence Stems From A 2022 Attempted Murder Investigation

     According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the guilty plea and sentence stem from an investigation that began on August 22, 2022, when members of the Point Pleasant Borough Police Department responded to a 911 Emergency Call reporting an unconscious woman inside a Butler Avenue residence in the Borough. Upon arrival, Police Officers found an unconscious woman, suffering from serious injuries to her head and neck area. 

     The woman was transported to Hackensack Meridian Ocean Medical Center in Brick Township, New Jersey. Due to the severity of her injuries, the woman was transferred to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey, where she underwent treatment and was eventually released.

     During the ensuing investigation, Detectives of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit, the Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit, and the Point Pleasant Borough Police Department, with the assistance of the Ocean County Sheriff’s Crime Scene Investigation Unit, determined that Santiago-Rojas assaulted the woman and then fled the area. On August 22, 2022, Detectives formally charged Santiago-Rojas with Aggravated Assault, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

     Nearly sixteen months later, on December 8, 2023, Santiago-Rojas was located and taken into custody in Wilmington, North Carolina, and jailed. On January 12, 2024, Santiago-Rojas was extradited to New Jersey and lodged in the Ocean County Jail, where he has remained since that date.

     During further investigation, Detectives of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit determined that Santiago-Rojas brutally assaulted the victim and strangled her to the point of unconsciousness on August 22, 2022, and as a result, Santiago-Rojas was charged with Attempted Murder on January 22, 2024. He was served and processed on the charge in the Ocean County Jail.

     Following Friday’s sentencing, Santiago-Rojas will be transferred to the custody of the New Jersey Department of Corrections to serve his prison term.