A Rockaway Township NJ man is heading to prison after pleading guilty to causing a fatal car accident in Rockaway Township, New Jersey. The suspect s case was handled by the Passaic County Prosecutor s Office.
The 29-year-old suspect was charged with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident in connection with the fatal car crash on Route 46 in Rockaway Township, NJ.
Following the motor vehicle crash, the suspect fled the scene. He was later apprehended by Rockaway NJ police officers.
The fatal motor vehicle accident occurred on February 23, 2014. The suspect was behind the wheel of a 2010 Dodge Charger and traveling on Route 46 when he slammed into the victim s car. The force of impact caused the victim to hit his vehicle windshield.
After the hit-and-run accident, the suspect reportedly moved onto Route 80 before finally dialing 911 to tell police that he might have hit something on Route 46.
The arresting officers later noticed that the suspect appeared to be intoxicated. A blood test of the suspect determined that he had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.167 percent, which is significantly higher than the legal limit of .08 percent BAC in New Jersey. As a result, the suspect was also charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI).
The car crash victim was just 24 years old at the time of his death. Making the fatal car crash even more tragic was the fact that the victim s son was born just a few weeks after he was killed.
Although the suspect was charged in Morris County, NJ, his case was moved to Passaic County because there was a possible conflict of interest: his mother worked as a clerk in Morris County Superior Court. This meant that the case needed to be transferred to the Passaic County Prosecutor s Office.
In April 2016, the suspect pleaded guilty to charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
Now the suspect has been formally sentenced on the vehicular homicide charges. He recently appeared in Passaic County Superior Court in Paterson NJ for a sentencing hearing, at which the superior court judge said that the suspect should spend the next eight years in New Jersey State Prison. The exact breakdown of the sentence was five years for the vehicular homicide charges and three years for leaving the scene of the accident, with the sentences to be served consecutively.
The convicted defendant will need to serve a minimum of 85 percent of his total sentence before he will be eligible for release on parole.
For further information about this case, read the NJ.com article, “Man Gets 8 Years in Hit-and-Run Crash That Killed Father to Be.”
