FREEHOLD – A Jackson Township man has pleaded guilty to providing the drugs that led to a Howell resident’s fatal overdose in 2023, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago.
During a hearing before Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley, 40-year-old Paul R. Clites admitted to one count of second-degree reckless manslaughter and one count of third-degree distribution of a controlled dangerous substance.
Police responded to a home on Westbrook Road in Howell on December 22, 2023, where they found an adult male dead in his bedroom. An investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and Howell Township Police determined that Clites had been in contact with the victim and supplied him with the drugs before his death.
Clites is scheduled to be sentenced on January 9, 2026. Prosecutors plan to recommend an eight-year state prison term for the distribution charge and seven years for the manslaughter charge. The latter sentence would be subject to New Jersey’s No Early Release Act, requiring 85 percent of the term to be served before parole eligibility.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Cummings, director of the Narcotics and Criminal Enterprise Investigation Unit. Clites is represented by attorney Shane Paugh of Middletown.
