TOMS RIVER, New Jersey — A 19-year-old Freehold man has been sentenced to 10 years in New Jersey State Prison for stabbing a woman at a Jackson Township apartment complex on Thanksgiving night last year and then fleeing police into Middlesex County, where the chase ended in Edison. Superior Court Judge Kenneth T. Palmer sentenced Jaden Thompson on Friday, October 23, 2026, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced. Thompson had pleaded guilty on August 31 to attempted murder, endangering the welfare of a child and eluding.
Source: NJToday News, based on the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office
The 10-year term is for attempted murder and is subject to the No Early Release Act, which means Thompson must serve 85% of the sentence before he is eligible for parole. Judge Palmer also imposed five-year terms for endangering the welfare of a child and for eluding, to run at the same time as — concurrently with — the attempted-murder sentence, so the total prison term imposed is 10 years.
Thanksgiving night at the Paragon Apartments
On November 27, 2025 — Thanksgiving night — officers from the Jackson Township Police Department responded to the Paragon Apartments on Larsen Road in Jackson for a report that an individual had been stabbed, the prosecutor's office said. Responding officers found a woman with a stab wound to the abdomen. Officers also found a 19-month-old infant lying in the area where the stabbing occurred; the infant was uninjured. The child is not named here, in line with minor-safety rules, and was not pictured in the prosecutor's releases.
The woman was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where she was treated and ultimately released, according to the prosecutor's office. A subsequent investigation revealed that Thompson was the individual responsible for stabbing the victim, prosecutors said. Townsquare Media's New Jersey 101.5 reported at the time that the case was treated as a domestic-violence incident and that Thompson's relationship to the woman was not disclosed by authorities.
Investigators said Thompson fled the area in a black Hyundai Sonata. He was charged on November 27, 2025, and his name was entered into the National Crime Information Center database, the nationwide system police use to flag wanted persons.
The flight ends in Edison
On November 28, 2025, officers from the Edison Township Police Department identified the motor vehicle being used by Thompson and attempted a traffic stop. Thompson recklessly sped away and ultimately crashed the vehicle, the prosecutor's office said. He then attempted to flee on foot but was taken into custody in the near vicinity. On November 29, 2025, Thompson was transported to the Ocean County Jail, where he has been detained ever since.
For readers in Edison and across Middlesex County — home to one of New Jersey's largest Punjabi and South Asian communities — the sentencing closes a case whose final police action played out on their own streets: a statewide alert that began with a stabbing in Ocean County ended, one day later, with a crash and a foot chase in Edison.
New Jersey's No Early Release Act requires people sentenced under it for violent crimes to serve 85% of the term before parole eligibility. On a 10-year sentence, that is eight and a half years that must be served before Thompson can be considered for parole.
Who ran the case
Prosecutor Billhimer credited Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Kaitlyn Burke, who handled the case on behalf of the State; NJToday reported that Assistant Prosecutor Rachel Tarver also handled the case. Billhimer commended the Jackson Township Police Department, the Ocean County Sheriff's Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit and K-9 Unit, the Edison Township Police Department, the Borough of Carteret Police Department and the United States Marshals Service for their combined work on the investigation that led to Thompson's guilty pleas and sentence.
What happens next
The sentence imposed matches what the State had told the court at the August guilty plea it would seek: 10 years under the No Early Release Act for attempted murder, with concurrent five-year terms on the other two counts. Thompson remains in custody — he has been detained at the Ocean County Jail since November 29, 2025 — and will serve the term in New Jersey State Prison. The woman he stabbed survived, was treated and released from hospital last year; the 19-month-old child found nearby was not hurt.