Woman Who Killed Ex-Lover, Girlfriend Must Pay Monthly Restitution of $5.00
By Mary K. Miraglia
HACKENSACK, N.J. (March 20, 2017) — A New York woman who is serving 68 years in state prison for the murders of her estranged partner and his lover four and a half years ago has had the question of how she will pay $30,000 in restitution resolved.
After examining Monica Mogg’s assets and length of sentence, Presiding Judge Susan J. Steele ruled that Mogg must pay $5.00 a month of the approximately $40 she earns through prison work in restitution, going first to satisfy $755 in court costs. The remainder of the $30,000 she owes will be “reduced” to a judgement, meaning there will be a levy again Mogg that would affect any future earnings or assets she may have.
Once the court costs are satisfied, in about 12 years, Steele ruled the monthly $5.00 would go toward the $30,000 judgement.
Mogg, 54, of Washingtonville, N.Y., testified Monday that her only income is the $2.00 a day she earns doing housekeeping in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, where she is serving 85% of an 80-year prison sentence, or 68 years under the state No Early Relief Act. Mogg’s defense attorney, Robert N. Kalisch Jr., said it’s theoretical possible she could pay restitution after completing a life sentence, but it is highly unlikely.
She said she works 10 hours a week and spends the money on needed personal hygiene items including shampoo and toothpaste. She has no financial assets, including alimony, pension, bank account, bonds, stocks or property including a car, jewelry, or real property. And she is unlikely to inherit anything because, she said, although both her parents are still alive “They don’t have any money.”
Before her arrest and conviction, she had worked at a preschool in Crown Heights where she earned about $15.00 an hour and worked 35 hours a week. Before that she worked in another school where she made less. She had been a substitute teacher for a few years while she attended graduate school. She has a bachelor’s degree in behavioral studies and a masters degree in communications disorders that she earned in 2012.
Mogg owes $30,000 to the Victims of Violent Crimes Compensation Board for funds paid for the funerals of her two victims, Arthur Noerdlinger and Lillian Kim, and she owes $755 in court costs.
The VCCB paid $25,000 of the $30,000 and is entitled to reimbursement. The court costs are fixed and, according to Steele, “I have no authority to waive the court costs.”
Mogg pleaded guilty in June 2015 to murdering Arthur Noeldechen, 52, and Lillian Kim, 42, in Kim’s River Edge home on Oct. 30, 2012. Evidence showed she shot Noeldechen in the chest and abdomen six times at close range with a .22 caliber rifle. She testified that she then got into a scuffle with Kim, pulled a knife from her back pocket, and stabbed her 14 times. The woman’s right jugular vein was severed and knife wounds as deep as three inches were found in her her vital organs.
Prosecutors said she had stalked the couple for months, purchased a rifle and gone to target practice to learn to shoot. She was able to get into Kim’s Millbrook Road house without detection through an unlocked rear door, where she waited before confronting the two in an upstairs bedroom. She was carrying duct tape and rope, in addition to the rifle and knife.
Mogg had been in a 10-year relationship with Noeldechen that had been over for some time when the pair were killed. She testified she went to River Edge to kill Noeldechen, but had not intended to kill Kim.
She was originally sentenced by Steele to two life terms of 75 years each, to be served consecutively; 10 years for armed burglary, five years for hindering and 18 months for stalking, concurrent to the life terms. However, her sentence was overturned on appeal and returned to Bergen County for resentencing. The Appellate Panel called the original sentence “excessive” based on the impossibility of serving two life terms.
She was resentenced to two terms of 40 year consecutive, and under the state No Early Release Act she is serving 85% of that, or 68 years.
