A 62-year-old Philadelphia man was sentenced Friday to 95 years in prison for plotting the murder of Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae and other officials who were involved in sending him to prison for orchestrating an arson that destroyed a bowling alley.
Stephen Smink was convicted Aug. 15 of conspiring to cause the death of Webb-McRae, First Assistant Prosecutor Harold Shapiro, two superior court judges, and an assistant prosecutor. He was facing a sentence of 30 years to life.
Webb-McRae and the others were involved in the prosecution of Smink for masterminding a 2010 arson fire that destroyed Loyle Lanes in Vineland. At the time, Smink ran a rival bowling alley, Pike Lanes, in nearby Deerfield Township.
Webb-McRae addressed the court at the sentencing hearing, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said.
“I signed up for my job, and as the front-facing symbol of my office, it could be argued that I knew the risks when I did,” Webb-McRae told Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Levin.
“But Judge, my family didn’t. My neighbors didn’t. My church family didn’t. And when they read that someone was arrested in a plot to kill me, they feel a little less safe spending time in spaces where I am present,” Webb-McRae said.
Smink, while in prison, had hired a member of the Latin Kings gang who also was in prison to carry out the killings. The Latin Kings member died before the plan was carried out, so Smink contracted a person prosecutors described as a cooperating witness to find a hitman.
Smink oversaw the transfer of sports memorabilia to pay for the hit and directed his mother, who has since died, to write correspondence to help further the conspiracy, Platkin said.
In a meeting with an undercover officer, Smink said: “If everybody was together, wipe the whole place out and kill everybody it just looks like somebody making an assault, a gangs meeting.”
Smink also said: “If somebody shot up the place it looks like the gang getting retribution.”
In the bowling alley arson case, Smink pleaded guilty and admitted that he bought the gasoline and kerosene cans, flares, and a drill used to start the fire. He got two other Philadelphia residents, who also pleaded guilty, to commit the arson.
Loyle Lanes, which had been in business for five decades, never reopened.