John Kelly (Barrett Leber Funeral Home).
A retired police officer from New Jersey was sentenced to more than a decade in prison for shooting and killing his husband, also a former cop, while demonstrating how to kill a snake during a night of drinking.
Joseph Grieco, 38, was found guilty in January of first-degree aggravated manslaughter in the 2023 death of his husband, 44-year-old John Kelly, in Vienna Township. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced Grieco to 11 years in prison, the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release.
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Prosecutors said on the evening of July 25, 2023, the couple went drinking at a local VFW. The party continued with Grieco, Kelly and friends at their home. Grieco took out a Gen4 Glock Model 23 and started messing around with it. Partygoers warned Grieco that the gun was loaded.
Grieco was showing people how to kill a snake, NJ.com reported. The gun went off, striking Kelly, a former New York City police officer, in the torso. Paramedics responded and rushed Kelly to the hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Grieco will have to serve 85% of his sentence before he’s eligible for parole. Prosecutors were seeking a 20-year prison sentence while the defense requested five years behind bars.
“The sentencing by the Court underscores the importance of safe and responsible gun ownership and the deadly consequences that can occur should a person disregard this responsibility,” Acting Sussex County Prosecutor Sahil K. Kabse said in a statement.
Kelly and Grieco met through a mutual friend and “the relationship quickly took shape,” Kelly’s obituary said. The couple of 14 years had grand future plans.
“Two years ago, John and Joe purchased a New Jersey mountaintop property bordering New York State and began clearing the property with a plan to build their forever home,” said the obituary, which described Kelly’s death as a “tragic accident.”
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