Kevin Ambrose could receive a life sentence after stabbing his partner to death in July 2014.
On Feb. 15, a jury found Kevin Ambrose, 56, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 41 year old Jennifer Bongco, who he had been dating and living with at the time of the homicide. Ambrose was also found guilty of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, third-degree possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon.
At the trial, assistant prosecutor Peter Crawford presented evidence that Kevin Ambrose stabbed Jennifer Bongco approximately 52 times inside of his vehicle, because he suspected her of having an affair. He then pushed the victim out of his car and dumped her body on Erial Road in Sicklerville just after midnight. The victim’s five year old daughter had been in the back seat.
The Winslow Township Police Department arrived at the victim’s residence on Duke Drive in Sicklerville after receiving a 911 call at approximately 12:29 a.m. on July 25, 2014.
The caller, Jennifer Bongco’s older daughter, who was 19 years old at the time of the incident, told police that Kevin Ambrose left the residence and had taken her younger sister to pick up their mother after work. She then stated that she heard banging at her front door and when she answered it, she found the five year old alone and covered in blood. The young girl told her older sister that their mother was dead.
While police were speaking to the older daughter at the Sicklerville residence, they received another 911 call from a motorist who found the victim’s body near the Erial and Walton’s Landing Roads in Winslow Township. Jennifer Bongco was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Kevin Ambrose, after dropping the five year old off at the home, fled to the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City where he was arrested the next day.
Kevin Ambrose, who faces the possibility of a minimum of 30 years to a maximum of life in New Jersey state prison, will be sentenced before the Honorable Gwendolyn Blue on March 15.
