Man sentenced to 25 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter

A Gloucester County judge on Friday sentenced Jon Nordberg to 25 years in prison, for the 2013 robbery and murder of a Franklinville man.

But the victim's family says the end of the criminal case is not the end of their quest for justice.

Nordberg, 44, was 54-year-old John McConnell's landscaper. He befriended him. But he knew McConnell received a monthly disability check. And so, in March of 2013, Nordberg bashed McConnell in the head, bound him, gagged him, robbed him and left him to die.

Under a plea bargain, Nordberg Friday admitted to aggravated manslaughter and could be released from prison in just over 17 years.

And that has McConnell's brothers and sisters angry.

And so the victim's family says, in the next week or so, they will file a civil lawsuit--for wrongful death--against Nordberg, seeking money damages.

Nordberg's criminal defense attorney says there's likely little money to recover.

"They may have a cause of action," says Ronald Thompson, but "as a practical matter, I don't believe Mr. Nordberg has anything. So I don't know what would be gained from it."

But the McConnell family says a civil suit will be worth it to send their brother's killer a message:

"At this point, we have no idea what type of assets he has or what type of money he may come into," says the family's attorney, Bill Colarulo, "but the rationale here is really to make his life a little harder. If he's going to get out of jail in 17 years, we'd like to have a big judgment against him to make his life a little harder."