The brutal murder of Jason Sweeney would shock the small community in Pennsylvania when it took place in 2003 as along with the sheer violence of the murder when it was revealed those responsible were a group of teenagers
Jason Sweeney was working a steady job and bringing in good money for someone his age as well he had begun dating Justine Morley. What Jason Sweeney did not know is that Justina was using him and was also sleeping with his friends.
Jason Sweeney received a phone call to meet Justina Morley at a remote location in Fishtown Pennsylvania. When Jason arrived he would be attacked by Edward Batzig Jr, Nicholas Coia and Dominic Coia who would beat the young man to death.
Justina Morley, Nicholas Coia, Dominic Coia and Edward Batzig Jr would rob the body of Jason Sweeney which they spent on drugs.
Justina Morley, Nicholas Coia, Dominic Coia and Edward Batzig Jr would soon be arrested and charged with robbery and murder
Justina Morley would quickly turn against the other members of the group in exchange for a lighter prison sentence. She has since been released from prison
Nicholas Coia, Dominic Coia and Edward Batzig Jr would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole
Justina Morley Current Information
| Name | Name Type |
| JUSTINA MORLEY | Commit Name |
Inmate Number:
OJ6487
Age:
38
Date of Birth:
03/07/1988
Height:
5′ 04″
Weight (lbs):
142
Gender:
Female
Complexion:
FAIR
State:
PENNSYLVANIA
Release Date:
12/21/2023
Edward Batzig Jr
| Name | Name Type |
| EDWARD BATZIG | Commit Name |
| EDWARD RAYMOND BATZIG | Also Known As |
| EDWARD R RATZIG | Also Known As |
Parole Number:
103HY
Age:
39
Date of Birth:
10/05/1986
Height:
6′ 00″
Gender:
MALE
Citizenship:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Complexion:
LIGHT
Current Location:
Dominic Coia
| Name | Name Type |
| DOMINIC COIA | Commit Name |
| DOMINIC MICHAEL COIA | Also Known As |
Parole Number:
095HY
Age:
40
Date of Birth:
06/13/1985
Height:
5′ 10″
Gender:
MALE
Citizenship:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Complexion:
LIGHT
Current Location:
Nicholas Coia Current Information
| Name | Name Type |
| NICHOLAS COIA | Commit Name |
| NICHOLAS GIRARD COIA | Also Known As |
Parole Number:
102HY
Age:
39
Date of Birth:
08/30/1986
Height:
5′ 06″
Gender:
MALE
Citizenship:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Complexion:
LIGHT
Current Location:
Jason Sweeney Case
Jason Sweeney, 16, was a brown-haired, easygoing teenager who loved working beside his father on construction jobs. His best friend was Eddie Batzig, a bespectacled 16-year-old. The girl he wanted to bring home to meet his mother was pale, slender Justina Morley, 15.
On the evening of May 30, Justina allegedly lured Jason to the Trails, a wooded area of the working-class Fishtown section of Philadelphia along the Delaware River. She promised him sex.
The two were undressing when Eddie allegedly appeared with a hatchet. With him were two other teenage boys Jason knew. One was armed with a hammer.
According to the confession of Dominic Coia, who appeared in court recently, Jason Sweeney was beaten savagely and fatally. The three young men are charged as adults with murder along with Morley, who police say was part of the plot.
As Jason lay dying, Coia told police, “We took Sweeney’s wallet out and split up the money, and we partied beyond redemption.” But first, he said, the teens shared “a group hug–it was like we were all happy with what we did.”
Like any big city, Philadelphia is accustomed to almost daily murders, some of them brutal, some committed by teenagers. But this one was different, and the accused teens’ apparent callousness and utter lack of remorse have shocked the city.
The accused killers were not high on drugs. The killing was not random. It was not a crime of passion or self-defense or a drug deal gone bad.
A police detective testified that he asked Coia, 18, whether he was high on drugs during the murder. “No, I was as sober as I am now,” he replied. “It is sick, isn’t it?”
The killers planned the crime several days in advance, according to police. They sent Morley as “the bait,” Coia told police. As Sweeney lay unconscious after the first blows, they smashed his face at least a dozen times. They left with Sweeney’s $500 weekly salary, which they spent on heroin, marijuana and the depressant Xanax.
To prepare for the killing that day, Coia told police, “we must have listened to `Helter Skelter’ about 42 times.” Mass murderer Charles Manson said the Beatles song inspired him and his followers during their 1969 killing spree in Los Angeles.
Batzig, who had been Sweeney’s best friend since 4th grade, told a detective that he hit his friend’s face four or five times with a hatchet, according to court testimony.
“Jason started begging for his life, but we just kept hitting him,” Batzig told police.
At a preliminary hearing June 17, no explanation was offered for why the killers did not simply rob Jason. Jason’s father, Paul Sweeney, thinks he knows why.
“Jealousy,” he said last week in the kitchen of his Fishtown row house. “They were jealous that Jason was moving past them, growing beyond them as a good person. He wasn’t hooked on drugs like the rest of them, and they wanted vengeance.”
Coia abused heroin, marijuana and alcohol, according to his lawyer, Lee Mandell. Morley, Batzig and Coia’s brother, Nicholas, 16, abused heroin, marijuana and prescription drugs, according to court testimony.
On the day of the killing, Dominic Coia told police that the killers left the house to hide in the woods as Morley lured Jason Sweeney to the site. They put on latex gloves, Coia said.
They counted down “three, two, one,” Coia said, and then they attacked.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2003-06-29-0306290275-story.html
