DWI is charged in student's death
The victim was the second Moorestown High teen killed in a week. A N.J. man faces six summonses.
New Jersey State Police have charged a Little Egg Harbor man with six traffic offenses, including driving while intoxicated, in a crash that killed a Moorestown High School senior last month.
Jesse J. Johns was driving a 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis on Route 38 in Southampton on Dec. 14 when it crossed the double yellow line to pass a truck and collided with a car driven by 2007 Moorestown High graduate Thomas McCue, police said.
Seventeen-year-old Eric Messick, a passenger in McCue's car, died at the scene. McCue and Johns were treated for injuries at Cooper University Hospital in Camden and released.
The additional summonses against the 30-year-old Johns, issued Thursday, are reckless driving, improper passing, failure to maintain a lane, failure to give proper signal, and failure to keep right.
No criminal charges have yet been filed, said Jack Smith, a spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office. He said the office was awaiting the results of laboratory tests.
Johns' license has been suspended 20 times in New Jersey, according to Motor Vehicle Commission records. None of the violations was DWI, according to commission records, and 19 were not moving violations.
Messick was killed a week after another Moorestown student, Evan Welch, died when the car he was riding in went into a ditch.