Heather Barbera: Guilty Plea, 42-Year Sentence, and Family Response

Heather Barbera is a New Jersey woman who beat her mother and grandmother to death with a nightstick inside their Ventnor City condominium in July 2018, then fled to New York City using the victims’ stolen credit cards. She pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced in January 2020 to 42 years in prison, with no chance of parole for at least 40 years.¹

The Killings in Ventnor City

On or around July 7, 2018, Barbera, then 41, fatally bludgeoned her mother, Michelle Gordon, 67, and her grandmother, Elaine Rosen, 87, inside their eighth-floor unit at the Vassar Square condominiums on the Ventnor City boardwalk. Both women died of blunt force trauma.²

The weapon was a nightstick that had belonged to Barbera’s late father, a former beat cop in Brooklyn.³ According to later reporting, Barbera first struck her mother with a flashlight before using the nightstick to kill both women.¹

The bodies were discovered around 10:25 a.m. on Sunday, July 8, by Barbera’s uncle, Richard Rosen, who went to check on the women after they could not be reached by phone. Rosen later told police that he had previously warned his mother and sister not to let his “troubled niece” live with them.⁴

Arrest in Manhattan

After the killings, Barbera took cash, credit cards, and jewelry from the victims and fled, first to Atlantic City and then to New York City. Surveillance footage captured her leaving the condominium on July 7. Investigators tracked her after she used her mother’s credit card at the Salisbury Hotel on West 57th Street in Manhattan on July 11 and continued making purchases as she walked toward Times Square, leaving what the New York Post called a “trail of virtual breadcrumbs.”⁵

New York City police arrested her the same day near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. She was extradited to New Jersey on August 2, 2018, and transferred to the Atlantic County Jail.⁶

Her Background

Barbera had been living in Mississippi with her second husband, Jimmy Scott Thompson, and moved to New Jersey in June 2018 to stay with her mother and grandmother after a disagreement.¹ Her brother had died of a drug overdose about four months before the killings, and Thompson later said her mental health deteriorated sharply after that loss.⁷ Her uncle described her to police as “emotionally troubled and addicted to drugs.”

The Guilty Plea

On October 15, 2019, Barbera pleaded guilty in Atlantic County Superior Court to one count of murder for the death of her grandmother and one count of aggravated manslaughter for the death of her mother.⁸ The agreement called for a 42-year prison sentence with parole eligibility only after 40 years.⁹

The 42-Year Sentence

Superior Court Judge Bernard E. DeLury sentenced Barbera on January 9, 2020. The term broke down as 30 years for murder, which carries a mandatory minimum in New Jersey, and a consecutive 12 years for aggravated manslaughter. She must serve at least 40 years before becoming eligible for parole.¹

In court, Barbera apologized in what reporters described as a quiet, muffled voice, saying, “I never wanted any of this to happen.”¹⁰ Judge DeLury called the case “a place of imperfect justice,” saying nothing the court could do would restore the victims. He described Barbera’s actions as “exceedingly violent” and her “depravity” as “palpable.”¹

Assistant Prosecutor Allison Eiselen told the court that Barbera “bludgeoned the two victims to death in their own home, then cleaned herself off,” took their money and jewelry, and “as they were gasping their final breaths, she just walked away.”¹ Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner said the case showed “that domestic violence and the disease of addiction impacts so many families in all of our communities.”¹⁰

Defense attorney James J. Leonard Jr. argued the killings grew out of a “very, very toxic and unhealthy family dynamic” involving substance abuse and mental illness, and said Barbera should not be defined by what he called a “brief but very violent encounter.” He described the fatal confrontation as “inevitable,” contending that Gordon had started a verbal argument that escalated into a physical fight the day of the killings.¹¹

The Family’s Response

Richard Rosen, both the son and brother of the two victims, rejected the plea as insufficient. “It’s horrible. How can you get 42 years for two murders? It should have been life,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.¹ A cousin, Betsy Tedesco, called the agreement “a travesty” and “absurd,” noting that “there were two murders, not one.”¹²

Barbera’s husband, Jimmy Scott Thompson, traveled from Mississippi for the hearing and was seen crying throughout. He told reporters that Barbera “is not a danger to the community” and attributed her actions to the trauma of losing her brother. Thompson said he intended to pursue an appeal, arguing she should have received 20 years for manslaughter rather than the sentence imposed.¹¹

1
Philadelphia Inquirer. Heather Barbera Sentenced Ventnor Murders
2
Courier-Post. Heather Barbera Ventnor Murder Rosen Gordon
3
NJ.com. Woman Admits Beating Mother, Grandmother to Death With Her Father’s Nightstick
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Philadelphia Inquirer. Ventnor Murders Mother Grandmother Vassar Square Beaten Nightstick
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New York Post. Woman Killed Mom, Grandma Before Fleeing to NYC: Police
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Courier-Post. Extradition Heather Barbera Ventnor Murder
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BreakingAC. Ventnor Woman Gets 42 Years in Killings of Mother
8
NBC New York. Woman Pleads Guilty Slaying Mother Grandmother New Jersey
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CBS News Philadelphia. Heather Barbera New Jersey 42 Years Prison Murdering Mother Grandmother
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NJ.com. Jersey Shore Woman Gets 42 Years for Beating Her Mom, Grandmom to Death
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Oxygen. Heather Barbera Feels Remorse for Murders Mom Grandma
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Press of Atlantic City. Heather Barbera Sentencing