Man charged in deadly hit-run that tossed another into Parkway traffic

A Toms River man was charged in the hit-and-run death of a man who had been standing on the shoulder of the Garden State Parkway late Saturday night.

Roberto Sandoval-Guerrero, 37, was driving a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer that struck two men who were beside their vehicles on the shoulder of the southbound lanes north of the Toms River toll plaza about 11:15 p.m., prosecutors said.

Frank Puglisi, 21, of Staten Island, and Daniel Cintron, 50, of Ossining, New York, had been in a minor crash and were exchanging information.

Puglisi was struck in the left arm while Cintron was thrown into the lanes of travel, where he was run over by traffic, prosecutors said.

Investigators said Sandoval-Guerrero continued south on the Parkway and abandoned his SUV on the shoulder and ran away. He was later found in the area of Route 9 and Church Road, police said.

Sandoval-Guerrero was charged with vehicular homicide, knowingly leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident, causing death or injury while driving with a suspended driver’s license, assault by auto and resisting arrest. He is being held in the Ocean County Jail pending a detention hearing.

The crash was one of two fatal crashes in Ocean County over the Labor Day weekend. Off-duty Lakewood police Officer Nicklas Shimonovich died late Saturday afternoon after his motorcycle hit a mailbox and parked utility trailer on Thompson Bridge Road, the street where he lived in Jackson.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ