Hate crime victim recalls 'sickening twist of the knife' at terrorist's sentencing

TOMS RIVER — Had the knife with which Dion Marsh stabbed him not broken off in his neck, Tzbi Schechter believed Marsh would have stabbed him again in the chest and killed him, Schechter said in a letter read in court Friday.

Schechter, in his letter read to Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan by Executive Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Michael Weatherstone, recounted the events of April 8, 2020, when Marsh ran over him with a car.

Schechter, in the letter, said he was in agony, believing both of this legs were broken, when Marsh asked if he was okay. When he responded he wasn't, Marsh "kicked me in my ribs and stomped on my injured foot," he said.

Then, Schechter said he threw up as he felt "the sickening twist of the knife," which broke off in his neck, preventing a further attack.

But, with his jugular vein and an artery severed, Schechter, of Lakewood, said he lost almost half of the blood in his body and nearly died.

"What have I done to you to deserve this?" Schechter said he asked his assailant. Marsh just laughed, he said.

"I was attacked because I was born a Jew," Schechter, who was not in court, said in his letter.

"I was attacked because I dress like a religious Jew and because, in the defendant's own words, 'Jews are the devil,' " he said.

Schechter was one of six Orthodox Jews terrorized by Marsh that day and one of four Marsh tried to kill.

Ryan on Friday sentenced Marsh, 29, of Manchester to 30 years in prison with no chance for early release on parole for his violent crime spree.

The sentence will run concurrently to a 40-year prison term imposed on Marsh Tuesday in federal court in Trenton for federal crimes related to the same course of events.

Marsh pleaded guilty in state Superior Court in January to terrorism, admitting a series of acts in Lakewood and Jackson that included a carjacking, the stabbing and hit-and-runs against pedestrians, all on the same day.

Marsh said he specifically targeted all of his victims because he believed they were of the Orthodox Jewish faith.

He later pleaded guilty in federal court in Trenton to five counts of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and one count of carjacking related to the same series of events.

The acts Marsh admitted to are:

• Approaching an occupied vehicle on Arlington Avenue in Lakewood in an unsuccessful attempt to steal the car;
• Forcing a motorist out of a 2016 Toyota Camry at Martin Luther King Drive and Pine Street in Lakewood and driving away in it;
• Attempting to pull a child out of the front seat of another vehicle at New Egypt Road and Carlton Avenue in Lakewood, while driving his grandmother's Honda Accord, with the intent to injure and terrorize the child;
• Striking a pedestrian at Kimball Road and Central Avenue in Lakewood with his grandmother's car with the intent to kill the victim, who survived;
• Striking another pedestrian, Schechter, at Pine Circle Drive and New Egypt Road in Lakewood and stabbing him after he fell to the ground;
• And, driving over a curb and onto a grass lawn on Galassi Court in Jackson, purposely striking yet another pedestrian,

All of the victims survived.

In pleading guilty, Marsh said he concluded all the victims were Orthodox Jews based on the neighborhoods he was in and the clothing they wore.

When police arrested him later the same night at his home, he was lying on a bed, clasping a machete to his chest. He later admitted the crimes to police, telling detectives, "It had to be done.'' He admitted in court that he also told detectives, "These are the real devils - Hasidic Jews.

Marsh had nothing to say to the judge before he was sentenced.

William Smith of the Ocean County Public Defender's Office asked the judge to take into account that Marsh didn't have a criminal record before this crime spree.

Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer, in a statement issued after the sentencing, vowed to prosecute to the fullest those who commit hate crimes.

"I am hopeful that this lengthy prison sentence will serve as a deterrent to anyone with even the slightest inclination to act on their misguided feelings of bias and hate,'' Billhimer said.

"It is clear that Marsh's virulent rampage was intended to terrorize the Jewish community," the prosecutor said.

"This prison sentence sends a clear message to those who would seek to terrorize innocent citizens of Ocean County, we will pursue you, prosecute you and ultimately convict you," he said. "We will do everything within our power to send you to prison for a very long time. I've said it before and I'll say it again: hate has no home in Ocean County,"

Billhimer thanked all the law enforcement agencies involved in Marsh's swift apprehension after the crime spree and the teamwork that led to the defendant's lengthy prison sentence.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Hate crime victim recalls 'sickening twist of the knife' at terrorist's sentencing