Relatives tried to defuse the dispute before prosecutors say Christian Smith fired over his mother.
WOODBURY, N.J. — A man convicted of killing his stepfather after a family dispute over offensive comments was sentenced Friday to 65 years in New Jersey state prison.
The sentencing of Christian Smith, 28, brought a close to the trial phase of a case that prosecutors described as a family argument that escalated despite efforts by two relatives to calm it. Dennis McKenzie Jr., 43, was killed inside the Woolwich Township home on Oct. 9, 2021. A jury found Smith guilty Jan. 20 of first-degree murder and possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose.
The people closest to the confrontation were not only witnesses to the argument, prosecutors said, but part of the physical scene that unfolded before the shooting. Smith’s mother and sister tried to defuse the dispute between Smith and McKenzie. His mother moved between the two men as the argument continued. Prosecutors said the disagreement centered on offensive comments Smith had made about the sexuality of McKenzie’s daughter and the daughter’s friend. The state said Smith objected to the friend being in the home and framed his objection around religious language. First Assistant Prosecutor Dana Anton said Smith described the house as “a house of God” while arguing about the guest.
As the argument grew more heated, McKenzie attempted to hit Smith, according to the prosecutor’s office. Smith then pulled a 9 mm handgun from his waistband, held it over his mother and fired, prosecutors said. McKenzie was struck once in the face and three times in the back. Authorities said those wounds killed him. The sequence became central to the prosecution because it placed Smith’s mother between the men and placed the gun in Smith’s waistband before the shots. Prosecutors said Smith’s actions showed he was not reacting to a weapon already loose in the room. They said he brought the handgun into the confrontation and used it at close range.
What happened after the gunfire also became part of the state’s case. Prosecutors said Smith disassembled the gun and recorded himself saying, “That’s what he gets.” That phrase was repeated in court accounts because prosecutors treated it as evidence of Smith’s state of mind after McKenzie was shot. The defense gave jurors a different account. It said the men struggled over a gun, that some shots went off accidentally and that Smith later gained control of the weapon. Defense arguments also pointed to Smith’s emotional state and past abuse, describing the shooting as a heat-of-the-moment act rather than a planned killing.
The prosecution’s response was direct. Anton told the court that the number and location of the shots did not match the defense theory. She argued that Smith had drawn the gun from behind him, reached over his mother and fired three times. “You can’t accidentally shoot somebody three times,” Anton said in a pretrial hearing. Jurors later accepted the state’s case. The verdict followed a trial in Gloucester County Superior Court before Judge William Ziegler, who also imposed the sentence. Prosecutors said the evidence included documents filed in the case and testimony presented during the trial.
The legal result leaves Smith facing decades in prison before any possible parole review. The 65-year sentence carries an 85% parole ineligibility requirement, meaning he must serve most of the term before becoming eligible. Prosecutors said that requirement applies under New Jersey law to the sentence imposed for the murder conviction. The term is longer than the 30-year minimum Smith faced after the guilty verdict. The weapons conviction was tied to the handgun prosecutors said he used during the fatal confrontation. The sentence was announced May 29, more than four years and seven months after McKenzie was killed.
Woolwich Township, a Gloucester County community in the Philadelphia metro area, became the setting for a case that moved from a private home to a public courtroom. The facts presented at trial focused less on a long buildup and more on a short argument inside the home, the attempt by Smith’s mother and sister to stop it and the moment the gun appeared. Prosecutors did not say the argument began as a physical fight. They said it started with offensive comments about two young people and turned deadly after McKenzie pushed back. The defense did not dispute that McKenzie died from gunfire but disputed how the shots began.
After sentencing, Gloucester County Prosecutor Andrew B. Johns said the punishment matched the seriousness of the crime. “This sentence reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s violent actions and ensures he will be held accountable for taking a life,” Johns said. He said the trial team’s work delivered justice for McKenzie. The prosecutor’s office has not announced any further hearings beyond standard post-sentencing steps. Smith remains convicted of murder and the unlawful-purpose weapons offense, and the judgment now moves the case from trial court proceedings to the long prison term ordered by Ziegler.
Smith’s sentence was imposed May 29, 2026, after the Jan. 20 verdict. His earliest parole eligibility will depend on service of the required 85% of the 65-year term.
Author note: Last updated June 29, 2026.