The Princeton man charged with killing his brother voluntarily agreed on Thursday to remain in jail pending court appearances in his case.
Matthew Hertgen, 31, is charged with first-degree murder and related weapon possession charges in the Feb. 22 death of Joseph Hertgen, 26.
Matthew Hertgen appeared in Superior Court of Mercer County in Trenton Thursday for a detention hearing. Sitting next to his attorney, Jason Matey, from the Office of the Public Defender, Hertgen consented to remain in the Mercer County jail pending the outcome of his case.
Matey did most of the talking and Hertgen spoke only a few times, to Matey.
The judge scheduled the next hearing for March 24.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office has said the older Hertgen used a golf club and knife to kill his brother and left a bloody scene.
An investigating detective wrote in an affidavit that Princeton patrol officers arrived at the brothers’ apartment at 11:15 p.m. that night, in the Michelle Mews complex just off Witherspoon Street, in response to a 911 call from Matthew Hertgen.
Police said Matthew Hertgen opened the door for them, and they saw Joseph Hertgen on the floor of the dining room with significant injuries to his head, chest and upper body, police said. His right eye was missing, they said.
A bloody golf club was near the body, police said, and a pet cat was dead on an ottoman, partially burned.
Investigators also found what appeared to be a cup of blood, along with bloodied utensils and a plate, police said.
As the officers detained Matthew Hertgen, they noticed his hands had cuts and scratches, the affidavit says. And when they asked how that happened, he said he “went into a fit of madness… maybe like forty minutes ago.”
Detectives later talked to another Hertgen brother, who said he took Matthew Hertgen out to a grocery store and another location earlier that day because his brother was depressed and despondent and experiencing “terrifying visions,” the affidavit says.
He dropped Matthew Hertgen off at the apartment at about 10 p.m., and Joseph Hertgen was home.
The Hertgen brothers were standout soccer players at Toms River North High School, and each played in college. Joseph Hertgen played for University of Michigan, and Matthew Hertgen for Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Joseph Hertgen graduated from Michigan and was working as an analyst for a firm in Red Bank.
