Belmar Man Indicted For Causing Fatal Drug Overdose Of Another: Police

BELMAR, NJ — This week, a Monmouth County grand jury indicted a Belmar man who prosecutors say caused the fatal drug overdose of another man in 2021.

Robert M. Clayton, 39, of Belmar, was indicted on one count of second-degree manslaughter, plus many illegal drug charges.

At 1:21 p.m. on January 2, 2021, Belmar Police were called to the area of Third and River avenues for a caller reporting an overdose in progress in the front seat of his car. The car was parked on Fifth Avenue with the passenger-side door ajar and a man — presumably Clayton — was crawling out of the vehicle face first.

Upon contact with the Belmar Police officers, the man crawling out of the car yelled, “Narcan him!”

One of the responding Belmar officers immediately retrieved his first-aid equipment and administered two doses of Narcan to an adult male, later identified as Jonathan Amato, who was seated in the front passenger seat in a reclined position, unconscious and not breathing.

Amato was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police say Amato overdosed and died as a result of the drugs he ingested at Clayton's home.

A subsequent search of Clayton’s home by the Belmar Police Department recovered the following: 919 Xanax pills, 101 Carisoprodel pills, 26 wax folds of heroin, 2 bags of powder heroin, 3 bags of MDMA (“Ecstasy”), 97 doses of LSD, 1 bag of Crystal Meth, 2 bags of Ketamine, 111 Methadone pills, 51 Adderall pills, 62 Tramadol pills, 2 vials of liquid Xanax, 11 Oxycodone pills and numerous other small amounts of pills, in addition to used hypodermic needles, vacuum-sealed packaging bags, hundreds of unused wax folds, 4 scales with CDS residue, 2 whipped-cream-dispensers and 200 whippet canisters.

In addition, 34 thumb memory drives were recovered, along with a computer and seven cell phones.