UPDATE: Dismissed juror in Sarah Stern murder trial blames sister for being kicked off jury

The defense attorney for the man accused of strangling his childhood friend Sarah Stern and tossing her body off a Jersey Shore bridge is seeking a mistrial after a juror posted a comment about the case on Facebook.

The juror was dismissed about 4:30 p.m. Thursday after Judge Richard English’s chambers received a call that someone spotted a comment posted by the juror. The information wasn’t made public, however, until Wednesday morning prior to the start of the day’s proceedings.

The comment was in response to a news article about the case and said, “Sitting on the jury LMAO" (laughing my a-- off), Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Meghan Doyle said Wednesday.

Prior to the start of the proceedings Wednesday, the jury was called into the courtroom and then asked one by one if they had knowledge of why the juror was dismissed. Five of the jurors said they learned the dismissed juror had posted something about the case on Facebook but that they had no knowledge of the contents of the post.

Carlos Diaz-Cobo, the attorney representing Liam McAtasney, requested to have the rest of the day to research the issue and write a brief seeking a mistrial. English granted the defense’s request.

Doyle and Christopher Decker, the other assistant prosecutor on the case, appeared visibly angered by the break. The state was planning to call its final witnesses Wednesday in a trial that has lasted several weeks.

Diaz-Cobo said he has five witnesses he planned to call to the stand.

McAtasney, 21, is accused of strangling Stern, 19, during a robbery at her Neptune City home on Dec. 2, 2016. He then dumped her body off the Route 35 bridge in Belmar with the help of his roommate, Preston Taylor, authorities allege. Stern’s body was never recovered.

Taylor has admitted his role in the case and testified against McAtasney on the first day of trial.

The jury last week also watched a secretly recorded video of McAtasney in which he explained in explicit detail how he strangled Stern and then watched her die.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story inaccurately reported the abbreviation used in the Facebook post. It’s LMAO.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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