Life without parole for Long Branch murder sentence

Days after an Ocean County man was convicted last week of a murder and robbery in Long Branch of a Point Pleasant man,  he was sentenced to Life in prison without parole, announced Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.
Alan Bienkowski, 58, will spend the remainder of his life in a New Jersey state prison without any possibility for release on parole after Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Ronald Lee Reisner imposed the sentence on Dec. 15. Bienkowski was found guilty the week before on all counts following a six-week trial.

Bienkowski was convicted on Dec. 8, 2016 of first degree counts of Murder, Felony Murder and Armed Robbery; second degree counts of Unlawful Possession of a Weapon, Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose and Certain Persons Not to Possess a Weapon; and third degree Receiving Stolen Property.

The jury also found three aggravating factors for the charges that carry a mandatory sentence of Life Imprisonment with No Parole.  One of those aggravating factors was based on Bienkowski’s murder conviction obtained by the Ocean County

Prosecutor’s Office earlier this year. He had been convicted of killing next door neighbor.

Prosecutors say the victim, Michael Wells, 56, of Point Pleasant, arrived just before 4 a.m. on April 10, 2013 at his workday at on West Avenue in Long Branch.  As Wells walked to the front door to open the business he was hit in the back of the head by Bienkowski, who robbed him of cash before fleeing the area on foot. Wells chased after Bienkowski and the pair eventually came face-to-face in the backyard of a private residence on Cleveland Avenue.  Bienkowski, armed with a stolen gun, shot and killed Wells in the backyard.  Wells was discovered around 7:50 a.m. by a resident of Cleveland Avenue.

A joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Long Branch Police Department resulted in Bienkowski’s arrest on May 16, 2013 for the robbery and murder of Wells.

A year later, a man who had moved into the defendant’s former Manchester Township residence discovered a gun buried in the yard. Investigators say the gun was determined to be the murder weapon, and it was found to be stolen in 2010.