Justina Morley

Jason Keel Sweeney (July 29, 1986 – May 30, 2003) was a construction worker from Fishtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who at the age of 16 was murdered by four teenagers for his paycheck on May 30, 2003.

The perpetrators included a girl he was dating and his best friend since childhood.

Due to the manner in which Sweeney was murdered, the ages of the teens involved, and the seeming indifference of the perpetrators, the crime received national media coverage.

Jason Sweeney left school and was working for his father, a contractor, on a building project in Philadelphia.

Morley was hospitalized for threatening suicide and self-mutilation in 2002.

She was once admitted to Friends Hospital for cutting her wrists, knees and thighs, taking pills and displaying a suicide poem, which she penned on her door.

Morley told her mother that she would commit suicide if her mother did not take her out of the hospital; her mother then took her out against the hospital's advice.

Morley was expelled from public school in the eighth grade, which she then repeated at the private Holy Name of Jesus Catholic school in Fishtown.

A psychiatrist hired by the defense team, William Russell, said the reason Morley began sexual activity at an early age "was an attempt at validation of self-worth".

Morley testified that she had sex with both Nicholas Coia and Batzig in exchange for heroin just a few days before they murdered Sweeney.

He recently met a girl he liked, 15-year-old Justina Morley, with whom he had a date on the evening of Friday, May 30, 2003.

Unbeknownst to Sweeney, Morley engaged in sexual relations with two other 16-year-olds, Nicholas Coia and Edward Batzig Jr. Batzig was Sweeney's best friend since the fourth grade.

Nicholas Coia and his 17-year-old brother, Domenic Coia, were also friends with Sweeney, but the brothers later ended the friendship.

With the promise of sex, Morley lured Sweeney to "The Trails," a wooded area of Fishtown near the Delaware River, where Batzig and the Coia brothers were lying in wait.

Batzig struck the first blow, hitting Sweeney in the head four or five times.

Batzig and the Coia brothers then pummeled Sweeney, primarily on his head and face, with a hatchet, a hammer and a rock until he was dead.

Batzig later told a detective how he hit Sweeney with the hatchet four or five times.

Batzig said, "Jason started begging for his life, but we just kept hitting him."

Batzig also said that Sweeney looked at him during the beating and said, “Please stop, I'm bleeding," after which Batzig hit Sweeney again with the axe. They finished by dropping a boulder on the right side of his head. Sweeney's head was crushed and the only bone left undamaged was his left cheekbone. He was identified by a cut on his hand that he sustained at his construction job.

Following Sweeney's murder, the four assailants stole the $500 cash he earned from work.

Before leaving the crime scene, the Coias, Batzig and Morley shared a group hug and split the money, which they used to buy jewelry and illegal drugs—heroin, marijuana, and Xanax—and then "partied beyond redemption," according to Domenic.

Domenic Coia confessed in a court hearing that they were all involved in the murder of Sweeney.

The police said the murder was planned days before.

Part of the preparation of the murder was listening to the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" over forty times, prompting later news coverage to draw a parallel to the Manson family murders.

Joshua Staab, 18, a friend of Domenic Coia, said that the group bragged about their plan to kill Sweeney by using Justina Morley as "bait."

Staab also said that Batzig knew that Sweeney would have his paycheck earnings on him on the day of the murder.

The prosecutor asked Staab about the teens' demeanor after the killing.

Staab said, "They seemed pretty fine. In a way, happy."

Although all four teens involved in the murder were drug addicts, they were not high before they murdered Sweeney.

In response to a detective's question about whether they were high during the killing, Domenic Coia answered, "No, I was as sober as I am now. It is sick, isn't it?"

A detective involved in the case and a forensic psychologist later opined that the killers' motivation went beyond robbery and stemmed from envy and resentment of Sweeney's relative success in life.

In his memoir, Domenic Coia gave a different account of the murder.

Domenic claimed he panicked when Batzig actually hit Sweeney and only participated when he feared him and his brother getting caught.

He also denies stating he was sober during the attack and states he later prevented them from killing Justina Morley as they feared she would testify.

He also denies involvement in any plans for the murder before the day it happened.

Justina Morley claimed that she started smoking marijuana at the age of 10, and shortly thereafter started taking prescription pills and snorting cocaine.

April Frederick, Morley's mother, said her daughter started cutting her wrists at the age of 10.

Morley was released on December 20, 2020.

Justina Morley's attorneys explained to the judge that the girl suffered through depression, suicide attempts, and substance abuse in order to get her a juvenile court trial.

Psychiatrist William Russell explained to the court how Morley attempted suicide twice by overdosing on pills only the year before the killing.