MAYS LANDING — During a fishing trip in the summer of 2012, Francis Mulholland pointed to a picture of April Kauffman and told his nephew that he'd killed the radio host and veterans advocate for money, jurors in the murder trial of Ferdinand Augello were told Wednesday.
But Timothy Sarzynski never told authorities until this year after charges were announced.
“We stopped at a Wawa, he brought out a magazine cover and pointed to a picture on it and said he did that,” Sarzynski told the jury during the eighth day of the trial.
Sarzynski identified the person on the cover as April Kauffman. He said he didn't report it because he didn’t believe his uncle, who he said often made up stories.
“He told me he walked into her bedroom, shot her twice in the back of the head and was paid $50,000 to do so,” Sarzynski said.
Sarzynski of Levittown, Pennsylvania was one of several new witnesses to take the stand Wednesday and give testimony relevant to the murder of April Kauffman, but nothing related to the man on trial, Ferdinand “Freddy” Augello.
Augello, 62, is accused of hiring Mulholland to kill April Kauffman in 2012 at the request of her husband, James Kauffman. Mulholland, 46, died in October 2013 of a drug overdose in his home in Lower Township.
According to the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, James Kauffman, a local endocrinologist, and Augello, a sign maker and retired Pagans motorcycle gang member, were involved in an OxyContin drug ring that April found out about and threatened to expose. In order to avoid a costly divorce and keep her quiet, the doctor paid Augello thousands of dollars to find someone to kill his wife.
Augello is also charged with conspiring to kill James Kauffman while he was in jail in late 2017, and also with racketeering for his role in the drug ring.
