A man is accused of driving drunk, hitting and fatally injuring a pedestrian in Plainfield, then fleeing and crashing into a car.
A Somerset County man was indicted on a vehicular manslaughter charge for a fatal hit-and-run accident in which he allegedly was driving drunk. (NJ Advance Media file photo) ELIZABETH -- Shortly after midnight on Nov. 7, 2015 a man driving drunk fatally struck a pedestrian in Plainfield and fled the scene, only to crash into another vehicle blocks away, authorities said.
Now the driver, Erixon Velasquez-Maldonado, 26, of North Plainfield, faces indictment on charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace Park announced Friday.
Park said Velasquez-Maldonado was driving on the 700 block of West Front Street when he struck Maynor Pena, 45, of Piscataway.
Officers responding to reports of the hit-and-run accident found Pena suffering from serious injuries, said Union County Assistant Prosecutor Jillian Reyes, who is prosecuting the case.
She said Pena was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead a short while later.
Minutes after that accident was reported, police received reports of a motor vehicle collision on Park Avenue near East 5th Street in Plainfield, Reyes said. She said officers found Velasquez-Maldonado at that crash and arrested him.
Officers determined that Velasquez-Maldonado had a blood alcohol level approximately three times the legal limit of 0.08, Reyes said.
Velasquez-Maldonado is being held at the Union County jail on $150,000 bail.
The charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident are both second-degree crimes, each punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison upon conviction.
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