April 2, 2013: Steven Goff, of Ventnor, appears in Atlantic County Criminal Court, in Mays Landing, N.J. (MyFoxNY.com)
GALLOWAY, N.J. – A New Jersey man told a judge in his first court appearance since turning himself in to police that he would plead guilty to the killing a teen 23 years ago.
"I did the crime. I’m prepared to do whatever I got to do," said Steven L. Goff, 41, of Ventnor.
But the hearing Tuesday in Superior Court was not to accept a plea, and the judge warned him anything he said could be used against him. He also told him he needed to get a lawyer.
MyFoxNY.com reported that Goff surrendered at the police station in Galloway on Monday morning. Within hours, he was charged with murder in the 1990 death of 15-year-old Frederick Hart in woods behind a condo complex in Galloway, authorities said.
Goff was 18 at the time Hart was killed. His remains were not found until 1991, when a hunter discovered them in the woods, the station reported.
The cause of death was never able to be determined from the remains, but prosecutors now say he had been stabbed, prosecutors told the station.
Goff is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
As a prosecutor described how the victim was stabbed, Goff raised and then dropped his head, appearing to fight back tears.
“I’m prepared to enter a plea, a guilty plea, right here now,” he told the court.
No motive for the killing was given.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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