Sean Lannon Gets 35 Years in New Jersey for Killing His Childhood Mentor With a Hammer
Lannon pleaded guilty to murdering Michael Dabkowski, 66, in East Greenwich. He still faced murder charges in four New Mexico deaths, including his ex-wife's.
Published
Sean Lannon was sentenced on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, to 35 years in New Jersey State Prison for beating to death the man who had once been his mentor. A Gloucester County Superior Court judge imposed the term, a representative of the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said, and Lannon will not be eligible for parole until he has served 30 years. He was 48.
He had pleaded guilty in October to first-degree murder in the killing of Michael Dabkowski, 66. According to officials, Lannon broke into Dabkowski's home in East Greenwich Township on March 8, 2021, and struck him repeatedly in the head with a hammer. Lannon then took Dabkowski's car, authorities said, and he was driving it when he was arrested in St. Louis two days later.
Dabkowski had been a mentor to Lannon and his twin brother in the 1980s, when the boys were in a youth program, the Associated Press reported; Patch identified it as Big Brothers Big Sisters. Lannon told investigators that Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child and that he had gone to the house to retrieve sexually explicit photographs. No evidence was ever presented in court to support that claim.
The cases still waiting in New Mexico
The New Jersey sentence closed only one of the five deaths Lannon was accused of. In New Mexico he still faced murder charges in the killing of his ex-wife, Jennifer, and two of her friends, whose decomposed remains were found in a pickup truck parked at the Albuquerque airport in March 2021. Police there have said the three were lured to their deaths over a period of weeks, then dismembered, their remains packed into plastic bins. He was also charged in the death of a fourth man who, authorities said, had agreed to help him move the bins without knowing what was in them. Jennifer Lannon had five children.
Two New Mexico district attorneys' offices said they would seek to bring him there to face those charges.
At the time of this sentence, Lannon had been convicted only of Dabkowski's murder; the four New Mexico deaths were charged but not tried. His claim that Dabkowski had abused him was never supported by evidence in court, and it is reported here only as his statement to investigators.
Sources
- Sean Lannon, accused of 5 murders, gets 35 years in NJ prison, Associated Press, via CBS Philadelphia
- Prison For South Jersey Man Accused Of Killing 5 People In 2 States: Officials, Patch (West Deptford), Michelle Rotuno-Johnson