Judge Allows Evidence in NJ Teen Murder Case

(originally published by 1010 WINS July 17th 2005)

(1010 WINS) (TOMS RIVER, N.J.) A state Superior Court judge has refused to throw out damaging evidence against Howell resident Jack Fuller Jr., accused of killing an Ocean County teenager last summer.

Fuller, 39, is charged with murder in the death of 16-year-old Brittney Gregory, of Brick, who was found buried in a shallow grave in July 2004.

Judge Vincent Grasso on Friday allowed prosecutors to use a secretly recorded tape between Fuller and an informant in which Fuller allegedly asked for advice on how deep to bury the body.

Grasso also turned down a request from Fuller's defense attorney to have the trial moved from Ocean County because of the publicity surrounding the case.

Gregory was a straight-A student at Brick Memorial High School who dreamed of becoming a forensic scientist.

She 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 Brittney that her sister would give her a ride if she waited about 45 minutes, 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.

A trial date has not been set.