A New Jersey man will die in prison for killing his own mother and father.

Craig P. Williams, 37, was sentenced Friday in Superior Court in Cumberland County. He got two life terms, one after the other. Each of those life terms carries 75 years. A hindering conviction added four more years on top. The total comes to 154 years.

Williams will not be up for parole until after the year 2150.

The killings happened in Hopewell Township. That is a small town in Cumberland County, in the southern part of New Jersey. The two people who died were Williams' parents. Brenda Lee Williams was 62. Billy C. Williams Jr. was 63. Their son lived in the house with them.

Prosecutors say both were stabbed over and over on March 9, 2023.

For four days, nobody outside that house knew.

Family kept calling. Nobody picked up. On March 13, 2023, relatives asked police to go check on the couple. New Jersey State Police drove out to the home.

Craig Williams opened the front door for the troopers. He told them his mom and dad were not home, prosecutors said.

The troopers went in anyway. They found Brenda Williams and Billy Williams Jr. dead. One was in the main bedroom. The other was in the bathroom. Both had been dead about four days.

There was a butcher knife in the living room. There were blood stains around a sink.

Police say Williams had tried to wash the blood off that knife. He could not get all of it off.

That was not his only try at a cover up. Prosecutors say he threw out bloody clothes, gloves, shoes and towels. He tried to get rid of a security camera. He tried to get rid of his parents' cell phones too.

The case took more than three years to reach a jury.

Jury picking started June 2, 2026, in Cumberland County. The trial ran about a month. On Thursday, July 2, the jury came back.

Jurors found Williams guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. That is the most serious murder charge New Jersey has. They also found him guilty of three weapons counts. Plus tampering with evidence, which means messing with proof. Plus hindering, which means getting in the way of a police case. Plus obstruction.

Eight guilty counts in all.

The office of Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae handled the case.

The sentence is worth a second look, because the math is what makes it so heavy. A judge can order prison terms to run at the same time. That is called concurrent. Or a judge can stack them, one after the other. That is called consecutive. Stacked terms are what turn a long sentence into a life sentence with no real end.

Here, the judge stacked them. Two 75 year terms plus four years is 154 years. Williams is 37 now. He would be well past 180 years old before parole is even on the table.

There is a second reason this case landed hard. It is not the killing alone. It is the four days that came after.

Williams stayed in the house with his parents' bodies, prosecutors said. He answered the door. He looked at the troopers who came to help his mom and dad. He told them nobody was home.

Cases like this one are rare, and they are ugly in a way that stays with people. Families in the Rio Grande Valley know the shape of it. When the harm comes from inside the house, everyone left behind gets hit twice. Once by the loss. Once by who caused it.

Brenda and Billy Williams were both in their 60s. They were killed in the home they lived in. Their son is the reason, a jury decided.

What comes next is mostly paperwork. In New Jersey, someone convicted at trial can ask a higher court to review the case. That process can take years. It rarely changes the outcome in a case with a verdict this broad.

For now, the number stands. 154 years. No parole before 2150.