A New Jersey lawyer has been allowed to withdraw from representing his client after it was discovered his client was planning on killing him. Robert Schillberg Jr. Esq., of Middletown, New Jersey was representing his client, Michael Anthony Nocera, when Nocera’s brutal plan to have Schillberg, Jr. killed was discovered.
Nocera, was arrested on August 23, 2017, and was subsequently charged with several counts of aggravated sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and child pornography. Two of his aggravated sexual assault charges were on children less than age of thirteen.
Nocera was being held without bail at the Ocean County Jail in Toms River, New Jersey for the charges mentioned above, when he was subsequently charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
While Nocera was in jail, detectives were able to discover his plan to kill his lawyer. Since December, authorities had been investigating Nocera’s plan, which involved him speaking with undercover officers and cooperating witnesses.
While investigating Nocera’s plan, the gruesome details were revealed. According to reports, Nocera offered up to $30,000 to anyone who would kidnap Schillberg, Jr., drive him to the woods, shoot him in the head, burn his body, and then dump his body in water. The reason for the gruesome plan to kill Schillberg Jr., was because of the fact Nocera did not think that Schillberg Jr. was doing the best job he could representing him. In fact, Nocera thought that because Schillberg, Jr. did not think that his client had a great shot of winning the case, he was going to cooperate with the prosecutors, which was against Nocera’s will.
On Wednesday, February 14, 2018, a judge from Toms River, allowed Schillberg, Jr. to withdraw from the case and appointed a new public defender to take his place.
