Beyond Redemption

Jason Sweeney was sixteen and already working construction for his father, a contractor in Philadelphia. He was saving his pay because he wanted to attend Valley Forge Military Academy and one day become a Navy SEAL. In late May 2003 he began seeing fifteen-year-old Justina Morley, who ran with a group of friends that included Jason’s longtime best friend, Eddie Batzig, and brothers Nicholas and Domenic Coia.

On May 30, 2003, Jason had just been paid about $500. Morley promised him sex and led him into The Trails, a wooded stretch near the Delaware River in the Fishtown neighborhood. Batzig and the Coia brothers were waiting there. They beat Jason to death with a hatchet, a hammer and rocks, took his cash, and then celebrated together before dividing the money and spending it on jewelry and drugs.

All four were charged with murder as adults. Morley pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, agreed to testify against the others, and was sentenced to 17½ to 35 years. In 2005 Batzig and both Coia brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. After the Supreme Court’s 2012 Miller v. Alabama ruling, Nicholas Coia was resentenced in 2015 and again received life without parole. Morley was released on parole in December 2020.