Suspended Neptune PD Sergeant indicted for murder, risks life without parole

Suspended Neptune Township Police Sergeant Philip Seidle faces 30 years to life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder, according to terms of his indictment reached by a Monmouth County grand jury today.

The 22-year veteran of the force and U.S. Navy veteran is accused of shooting his wife point-blank in Asbury Park earlier this year.

At 11:26 AM on June 16, Asbury Park officers responding to an unrelated crash near Ridge and Sewall Avenues encountered Tamara Seidle's 2012 Volkswagen Jetta, turning onto Sewall and crashing into a parked car.

Authorities said that Seidle, close behind in a 2005 Honda Pilot also containing their seven-year-old daughter, stopped, approached her car on the driver's side, and fired several times at point-blank range.

Seidle then placed the muzzle of the gun to his head, moved to the front of his wife's car, and fired several more rounds at the windshield, investigators said. Once more aiming at his own head, Seidle engaged Asbury and Neptune police in a standoff that ended with his surrender at 12:17 PM, authorities said.

According to information from the office of acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Grammiccioni, the remaining counts of the indictment are second-degree charges of possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose and endangering the welfare of a child.

A conviction on the weapons charge would mean a possible 10-year prison term, up to five without parole. A conviction for child endangerment carries a possible five-to-10-year sentence.

He remains incarcerated in Monmouth County on bail totalling $2,000,000, with no option for release on payment of 10 percent.

Authorities said that Seidle's possible maximum sentence is permissible under guidlines that stipulate it if the murder was committed by his own conduct, and if one or more aggravating factors exist.

Based on information presented to them, jurors concluded that Seidle acted by his own conduct; that he purposely or knowingly created a grave risk of danger or death to another person in addition to the victim; and that the killing was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman by virtue of the presence of torture, depravity or aggravated assault.