Steven Smink at his sentencing with attorney Durann Neil.
A former Vineland bowling alley owner convicted of plotting to kill those he blamed for his incarceration was sentenced to 95 years in prison Friday.
Steve Smink, 62, was found guilty last month on eight counts, including conspiring to murder two judges and three prosecutors from Cumberland County.
He was tried in Atlantic County due to the conflict.
The hit list was created while Smink, the former owner of Pike Lanes, was in prison serving a 15-year sentence for enlisting teenagers to burn down Loyle Lanes, a rival bowling alley in Vineland.
Steven Smink (N.J. Department of Corrections)While Smink pleaded guilty to that earlier crime, he blamed those involved in his case for his imprisonment, according to the case.
The evidence clearly showed that Smink not only planned the killings, but never backed down even after losing one potential hitman and being given several outs by the second group of believed co-conspirators who turned out to be undercover law enforcement, Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Joe Levin said in laying out the case before imposing sentence.
Smink did not care where the killings took place, showing no concern for the potential of innocent bystanders, according to the prosecution.
He even suggested an assault at a Christmas party where several targets would be together.
"If everybody was together, wipe the whole place out and kill everybody — it just looks like somebody making an assault, a gang meeting,” he told an undercover officer. “If somebody shot up the place, it looks like the gang getting retribution."
But defense attorney Durann Neil argued that his client was entrapped and manipulated.
That was rejected at trial, the judge said, pointing to Smink's confession during which he agreed that the undercovers tried to give him outs several times.
Neil said his client showed remorse during the confession and even said he did not want anyone hurt.
The judge said that in the interview with detectives, Smink sounded "deflated" for getting caught, but offered no apology.
Judges Robert Malestein and Robert Becker, First Assistant Prosecutor Harold Shapiro, Assistant Prosecutor John Jesperson and Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae were named victims, but there were others on a list cultivated over years, according to information presented in court. That defense attorneys and witnesses.
Webb-McRae spoke at the sentencing, saying Smink wanted her dead just because of the oath she took as Cumberland County's prosecutor.
She learned some at Friday's sentencing that she previously avoided.
"I didn't want to know because I wanted some semblance of sleep at night," she said.
While Webb-McRae said she might have known what she was signing up for when she took the position, those around her did not.
Smink declined to speak.
Neil said they will be appealing.
In imposing sentence, Levin said each victim deserved to be represented, giving Smink 19 years for each named victim to be served consecutively for a total of 95 years.
He would have to serve at least 85 percent under the No Early Release Act, or 80 years and nine months.
He was give a minimum of 30 years for conspiracy to commit murder, which would be served concurrent with the 95 years, along with 18 months for the merged fourth-degree counts of conspiracy to transport firearms and transporting firearms
Smink has 889 days of credit, which represents the 2½ years that have passed since his original arson sentence would have been complete.
He would have to live to be 141 years old be eligible for parole. He then would be under 25 years of parole supervision — five years for each victim.
