Double Murderer Given Two Life Terms

The Red Bank 24-year-old convicted in May of shooting two shore men to death in February 2009 after an encounter at a gas station is given two consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole.

Antonio Suarez-Perez, also known as Mingo, heard his sentence in Freehold today for the killings of Sidney Wakefield, 26, of Long Branch, and Joseph Fann, 23, of Middletown.

Investigators responding to a flurry of 911 calls found both bullet-riddled bodies on Locust Avenue -  Fann's inside Wakefield's car, and Wakefield's on the ground a short distance away.

Suarez-Perez was found a short while later in Middletown, one of three occupants of a black Audi spotted and tailed by a Red Bank police officer from the homicide scene.

The other two in the car, Eric Figueras, 28, of Red Bank, and Samson Hearn, 30, of Fair Haven, later pleaded guilty to hindering the apprehension of Suarez-Perez and are serving five-year probationary terms.

The handgun was found on Route 35 at Twinbrooks Road in Middletown by a citizen who handed it to police. Authorities determined that it was thrown from the car in which the three were found.

Jurors at his two-month trial convicted him on two first-degree murder counts, several weapons-possession charges and evidence tampering.

Suarez-Perez has been in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold without bail.