Ex-Egg Harbor City Restaurant Owner Sentenced to 30 Years For Wife’s Murder

MULLICA TOWNSHIP - A onetime Atlantic County restaurateur, convicted in July for his wife's 2014 murder, heads to prison for 30 years.

Sergio DeRosa's sentenced, meted out this morning, stipulates that he serve 30 years before parole eligibility, according to Atlantic County First Assistant Prosecutor Cary Shill.

DeRosa, former owner of the Old Bay Restaurant, underwent a six-day trial in July before a jury returned a guilty verdict for the death of Lynn DeRosa, 57. He claimed that it was an accident while he was cleaning his gun.

"The defendant has spent three years since the crime trying to place blame on other people and taking no responsibility for killing his wife," said Chief Assistant Prosecutor Seth Levy, who conducted the case for the County.

"In that time, the prosecution continued the investigation and did not give up. In July, a jury assigned responsibility to the defendant with a guilty verdict and now Judge Rauh has also assigned responsibility."

Mullica Township police and the County Prosecutor's Major Crimes Unit responded to a 911 report of the shooting on the morning of May 26, 2014.

Autopsy results the following day pinned the cause of death on a shotgun blast to the head and ruled it a homicide. DeRosa was indicted in September 2016.

Source: Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office