LAKEWOOD – A Toms River man has been charged with aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide in a crash that killed a Matawan woman earlier this year, authorities announced.
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said Martine Taylor Jr., 56, was arrested September 11 in Toms River following a months-long investigation into the May 13 wreck that left 52-year-old Christine Kroliczak dead.
Police said the crash happened around 1:35 a.m. on Cedar Bridge Avenue near the Garden State Parkway overpass. Officers responding to reports of downed utility wires found a 2015 Nissan Altima overturned in a drainage ditch. Taylor was trapped inside and hospitalized with injuries. Kroliczak, the passenger, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators determined the Altima had crossed the centerline at high speed, gone airborne, struck a utility pole and a tree, and landed upside down after traveling nearly 190 feet through the air. Authorities said Taylor was driving on a suspended license, with a blood-alcohol concentration of .182 and traveling as fast as 98 mph in a 50-mph zone.
Taylor was initially charged with causing death while driving with a suspended license and released under New Jersey’s bail reform laws. After receiving toxicology results, prosecutors upgraded the charges to aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide.
He was arrested without incident at a Toms River hotel and is being held at the Ocean County Jail pending a detention hearing.
Billhimer praised the work of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Vehicular Homicide Squad, Lakewood Township police, and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation.
All charges are accusations, and Taylor is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
