Man Pleads Not Guilty In Teen's Murder

(originally posted by 1010 WINS March 5, 2005)

(1010 WINS) (TOMS RIVER, N.J.) A man accused of killing his friend's 16-year-old daughter last summer has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge.

Jack Fuller, 39, was indicted last month in the murder of Brittney Gregory and entered his plea Friday. He has remained in jail for lack of $1 million bail since his arrest in July.

Gregory, a straight-A student at Brick Memorial High School who dreamed of becoming a forensic scientist, disappeared July 11 after she called her mother from her father's house and said she wanted a ride to her boyfriend's home.

Her mother told her that if she waited for about 45 minutes, her sister would give her a ride, but Brittney did not answer the phone later that night. Her body was found two weeks later beneath a power line tower in Lakewood.

Fuller, who was a friend of Gregory's father, has a history of drug and theft-related offenses. He had been released from prison in 2003.

If convicted, Fuller will not face the death penalty. A capital committee that reviewed the evidence against Fuller was not satisfied that any aggravating factors existed, authorities announced last month.

Under state law, aggravating factors may include whether the murder was committed during the commission of another crime such as a robbery, whether the victim was a child younger than 14 or whether the crime was a case of murder for hire, among others.