The Murder of Jason Sweeney

Jason Keel Sweeney, a construction worker from Fishtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 16 years at the time of his murder, was murdered by four teenagers for his paycheck on May 30, 2003.  The perpetrators, including a girl he was dating and his best friend since childhood.  The manner which Sweeney was murdered, the ages of the teens involved, the seeming indifference of the perpetrators, and crime received national media coverage.

Murder

Jason Sweeney left school and was working for his father, a contractor on a building project in Philadelphia.  Sweeney met a girl he liked, 15-year-old Justina Morley, with whom he had a date on Friday, May 30, 2003.  Unbeknownst to Sweeney, Morley was engaging in sexual relations with two other 16-year-olds, Nicholas Cola and Edward Batzig, Jr.  Batzig was Sweeney’s best friend since fourth grade.  Nicholas Cola and his 17-year-old brother, Domenic Cola, was also friendly with Sweeney, but the two brothers ended their friendship with Sweeney.

With the promise of sex, Morley lured Sweeney to “The Trails,” a wooded area of Fishtown near the Delaware River, where Batzig took the first blow, striking Sweeney in the head 4 to 5 times.  Batzig and the Cola brothers pummeled Sweeney, primarily in the head and face, with a hatchet, a hammer and a rock until he was dead.  Batzig later confessed to how he hit Sweeney with a hatchet 4 to 5 times.  According to Batzig, “Sweeney begged for his life, but we just kept hitting him.”  Batzig also goes on to say that Sweeney looked at him during his beating and said, “Please stop, I’m bleeding,” but Batzig continued to hit Sweeney again with a axe.  They finished the job by dropping a rock on the side of Sweeney’s head.  Sweeney’s head was crushed and the only bone left undamaged was his left cheekbone.  He was identified by a cut on his hand that he sustained at his construction job.

After Sweeney’s murder, the four assailants stole the $500 cash Sweeney had earned from work.  The four perpetrators, the Colas, Batzig and Morley shared a group hug and split the money, where they bought jewelry and illegal drugs—heroin, marijuana and Xanax—then “partied beyond redemption”, according to Domenic.

Domenic Cola confessed in a court hearing that they were all involved in the Sweeney’s murder.  police said the murder was planned days before after listening to The Beatles’ song, “Helter Skelter” nearly forty times, drawing a parallel to the Manson family murders.  Joshua Staab, 18, a friend of Domenica Cola, said the group bragged about their plan to kill Sweeney by using Justina Morley as “bait.”  Staab also said that Batzig knew Sweeney would have his paycheck on him the day of the murder.  When the prosecutor asked Staab the teens’ demeanor after the killing, Staab said, “They seemed pretty fine.  In a way, happy.”

Despite the fact the teens were drug addicts, the four teens were not high before they murdered Sweeney.  When the detective asked whether they were high during the murder, Domenic Cola answered, “No, I was as sober as I am now.  It is sick, isn’t it?”  according to a detective and a forensic psychologist later suggested that the killers’ motivation went beyond robbery stemming from envy and resentment of Sweeney’s relative success in life.

Justina Morley

Justina Morley claimed she started smoking marijuana at age 10, and shortly started taking prescription pills and snorting cocaine.  April Frederick, Morley’s mother, said her daughter started cutting her wrists at the age of 10.  Morley was hospitalized for threatening suicide and self-mutilation in 2002.  She was admitted to Friends Hospital for cutting her wrists, knees, and thighs, taking pills and displaying a suicide poem, which she penned, on her door.  Morley told her mother she would commit suicide if she did not take her out of the hospital; and against the advice of the hospital doctors, took her out of the hospital.  Expelled from public school, Morley repeated the eighth grade at the private Holy Name of Jesus Catholic school in Fishtown.

William Russell, the defense team’s psychiatrist said Morley began sexual activity at an early age in an “attempt of validation of self-worth.”  Morley testified that she had sex with both Nicholas Cola and Batzig in exchange for heroin just a few days before they murdered Sweeney.

Trial

Justina Morley’s attorneys explained to the judge that the girl suffered depression, suicide attempts and substance abuse to get her a juvenile court trial.  Psychiatrist Willian Russell explained how Morley attempted suicide twice by overdosing on pills a year before the murder.  Morley’s attorney argued she was the east culpable and if tried as a juvenile, could get treatment and live a productive life.  The Assistant District Attorney argued that Morley was an important part of the plot in Sweeney’s murder and she had treatment previously, to no avail.  If tried in juvenile court, Morley would be free of court supervision by age 21.  The judge agreed with the prosecution and ordered Morley to be tried as an adult for murder.  Morley then pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in exchange for her testimony against the other defendants, and sentenced to 17 ½  - 35 years in prison.

Domenic Cola, Nicholas Cola and Edward Batzig, Jr. were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery and possessing an instrument of crime.  All were tried as adults, but in 2004, prosecutors decided against the death penalty against Batzig and Nicholas Cola, but planned to seek it against Domenic Cola.  However, during trial, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that defendants under the age of 18 could not be executed.  As a result, Domenic Cola, who was 14 days away from his 18^th birthday at the time of crime, could not receive the death penalty.  Instead, the Cola brothers and Batzig faced mandatory life sentences without parole if convicted of first-degree murder.

Jailhouse letters of the defendants were read during the trial to understand their behavior and determine who was most culpable.  Defense counsel for the Colas, Batzig argued that Morley was the instigator and led the boys to commit the murder of Sweeney.  Morley writes to Domenic Cola:  “So you say I’m manipulative, and yes, I believe I am in ways.  I’m persuasively manipulative, and I think I’m pretty good at it, too.  I enjoy dragging people along.”  She went to say: “ . . . Tell me you don’t enjoy these gullible humans.  It’s funny how easy it is to persuade them into lies.”  She also wrote to Domenic Cola, “I’m a cold-blooded [expletive] death-worshiping bitch who survives by feeding off the weak and lonely.  I lure them, and then I crush them.”  expressing no remorse in one letter, she stated: “I am guilty.  But I still don’t feel guilty for anything. . . . I still enjoy my flashbacks.  They give me comfort, I love them.”  But Morley testified that she did feel remorse for Sweeney’s murder and stated she only wrote those things to be accepted by the Colas and Batzig.  The prosecution, acknowledging Morley’s letters to show her to be “a cold-blooded killer”, used her letters to show the depravity of the group.

The defense attorneys for the Colas and Batzig contend that their clients, as drug addicts, lacked the intent to kill needed to support a first-degree murder conviction, and at most committed the lesser crime of third-degree murder.  The strategy was undermined by the three defendants’ confessions.  Assistant District Attorney Jude Conroy read part of Domenic Cola’s confession in court: “We just kept hitting and hitting him. . . . We took Sweeney’s wallet and split up the money, and we partied beyond redemption.”  Domenic Cola also told a detective: “It was like we were all happy {with] what we did.”

Verdict and Sentencing

The Cola brothers and Batzig were convicted on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery and possession of an instrument of crime.  In May 2005, each one was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole for murder, plus 22 ½ to 45 years for conspiracy, robbery and possessing an instrument of crime.

None of the teens showed any remorse or apologized for Sweeney’s murder.  Paul Sweeney, the victim’s father, addressed Domenic Cola, saying: “Look at me, Domenic, with you evil eyes”.  Domenic Cola responded, “I never thought I had evil eyes, but I guess is do.  And I’m cool.”  The judge, denying defense counsel’s motion for a sentence that could allow parole, said: “There is a level of inhumanity that exists in these facts.  This was a totally depraved act.”

Resentencing

In 2012, the Supreme Court in Miller v. Alabama struck down mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles under 18, holding that the court must consider the individual circumstances for each juvenile defendant in determining sentence – which might still be life without parole if, in the court’s judgment, the circumstances warrant it.  The Supreme Court left open the question whether Miller applied retroactively to trigger resentencing of all juveniles who had already been sentenced, leaving this to the decision of individual state courts and legislatures.  In Pennsylvania, where the Colas and Batzig were sentenced, the state supreme court ruled in 2013 not to apply Miller retroactively, thus upholding the mandatory life sentences of juveniles whose sentences were already final at the time of the Supreme Court ruling.  However, the state supreme court also ruled (in a different case) that juveniles sentenced to mandatory life without parole whose sentences were not yet final at the time of Miller were entitled to a resentencing hearing considering their individual circumstances, at which they could receive a sentence of life without parole, or life with the possibility of parole after a minimum term.  Batzig and Nicholas Cola, who both had appeals pending at the time of Miller, were granted such resentencing hearings.

At Nicholas Cola’s resentencing hearing on February 19, 2015, Common Pleas Judge Sandy L.V. Byrd sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, upholding the original 2005 sentence.  Byrd noted, “This is an uncommon case, there are no factors which remove the defendant from the punishment of life in prison without parole,” Byrd said.  “Not only did he plan the assault, but he participated in the assault which was so violent that Jason Sweeney had to be identified with dental records.”

Memorial Foundation

Paul and Dawn Sweeney, Jason’s Sweeney’s parents, set up the Jason Keel Sweeney Foundation, in memory of their son, to fund a full scholarship for the Valley Forge Military School, the school of their son’s dreams.  Jason wanted to attend the military school to become a Navy SEAL.  He was accepted into the school, but could not afford the tuition.

In Popular Culture

A 2003 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Coming of Rage” (Season 4, Episode 10) was inspired on the Sweeney murder.

The Sweeney murder inspired comic artist Kevin Colden’s 2008 graphic novel Fishtown, which was nominated for an Eisner Award.

A 2012 episode of the Lifetime Movie Network series Killer Kids titled, “Foul Ball and Framed” detailed the murder, with actual footage from the crime scene, in the second segment of the episode (“Framed”).

In 2013, convicted murderer Domenic Cola wrote a memoir of his life and the murder, titled “Biological Juvenile”.  It was subsequently posted in PDF form on the website prisonsfoundation.org.

The episode “Murder Among Friend” titled “Friend Fatale,” on Investigation Discovery profiled the murder of Jason Sweeney on May 17, 2016, less than two weeks before the 13^th anniversary of Sweeney’s death.