Police, Fire & Courts

Driver, 21, Pleads Guilty in Fatal Pedestrian Crash on Route 35

by
Daniel Nee
April 3, 2025

Mark Carey, Jr. (Photo: Ocean County Jail)

A 21-year-old motorist has pleaded guilty to a charge of knowingly leaving the scene of a fatal accident in connection with the case of a pedestrian struck while crossing Route 35 in Brick Township.

Mark Carey, Jr., 21, of South Amboy, entered his plea before Superior Court Judge Kimarie Rahill on Thursday. Prosecutors said they will be seeking a six year prison term at sentencing, which is currently scheduled for June 13, 2025. The accident took place Jan. 14, 2024 in the area of Route 35 South and Bay Avenue in Brick Township.

Brick Township police officers responded to the area at 9:15 a.m. the day of the accident for a report of a hit-and-run collision involving a pedestrian. Responding officers discovered that a vehicle had struck a female pedestrian, later identified as Julia Sutton, 56, of Weehawken, Hudson County, in the shoulder of the roadway and then fled the scene. Sutton was taken to Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center in Brick Township, where she was pronounced deceased.

Brick detectives, as well as investigators from the prosecutor’s office and Ocean County Sheriff’s Department determined that the vehicle which struck and killed the victim was a 1999 Ford Explorer registered to Carey. Further investigation identified Carey as the individual who operated the Explorer at the time of the crash which resulted in Sutton’s death. Carey was taken into custody at his home in South Amboy without incident, and thereafter processed at Brick Township Police Headquarters. He was transported to the Ocean County Jail, and subsequently released in accordance with New Jersey’s bail reform law.