Manalapan bar leaves
1 dead, 1 facing charges
April 18 incident outside
Manalapan bar leaves
1 dead, 1 facing charges
By kathy baratta
Staff Writer
Kevin Schellet
MANALAPAN — Kevin Schellet’s family and friends say his standard response when asked "How’re you doing?" was a big grin and the words, "Just another day in paradise."
That’s why, for a man so vital and full of a love for life as Schellet was, it was unthinkable for his family members and loved ones to leave him to be kept alive by machines.
His sister, Pam Hawkins, 54, said the family wanted to honor and preserve the integrity of the man Schellet had been, his life and how he lived it, and to do what they are confident he would have wanted.
So the hard decision was made on April 28 to turn off the machines that were keeping him alive.
That came 10 days after the infliction of Schellet’s head injury and doctors’ assurances that the prognosis for his survival was bleak and that, even if possible, it would mean survival in a permanent vegetative state.
On April 18, Schellet, 45, of Englishtown, had been left in a coma after being struck by a vehicle and suffering massive head trauma that caused what doctors told the family was irreversible and comprehensive brain damage.
Compounding the situation was the fact that the driver of the vehicle that struck Schellet was the estranged husband of Schellet’s girlfriend, Kathleen Redline-Winn, 39, of Manalapan.
Immediately following the incident, Douglas Winn, 49, was charged with aggravated assault.
However, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye, the charges against Winn were upgraded to aggravated manslaughter when Schellet’s life support system was disconnected April 28 and his death followed seven minutes later.
If convicted in the death of Schellet, Kaye said, Winn faces a possible 10 to 20 years in state prison. At of the end of last week, Winn remained in the Monmouth County jail, Freehold Township, with bail set at $250,000.
According to Kaye, Winn’s attorney Carl Danziger, of Freehold, has petitioned the court for a bail reduction hearing. That could take weeks to be heard, according to the prosecutor.
With Schellet in his final moments were his mother, Shirley; his sister, Pam; his brother, Jeffrey, 51; his "brother from another mother," Gerald Melillo, of Manalapan; Melillo’s wife, Lucy; and Redline-Winn, the former Kathleen Redline.
Redline-Winn, a longtime resident of Manalapan, is the only known eyewitness to theincident that ended up claiming Schellet’s life.
Incensed by another newspaper’s depiction of her relationship with Schellet as being illicit, Redline-Winn said, "Nobody was cheating; the marriage had been over for years."
Redline-Winn said she and her husband had "lived apart, but in the same house for years," and that he slept in a separate bedroom in their Manalapan home.
She told a News Transcript reporter she and her husband had not divorced and continued to reside under the same roof for "economic reasons and for the kids," referring to her teen-age son and daughter.
According to several friends and acquaintances and to Redline-Winn herself, Winn would drive his estranged wife and their son to and from Schellet’s home and all three adults frequented the same local establishments.
To her mind, her husband did not act deliberately when his vehicle struck Schellet, but instead, said Redline-Winn, what happened was "a horrible accident."
She said that on that Good Friday afternoon, when she and Schellet exited the Main Brook Tavern outside the Englishtown Auction Sales, Route 527, they saw her husband there in his truck.
Acknowledging that both she and Schellet, who was on vacation that week, had consumed some alcohol that afternoon, Redline-Winn said that while she and Schellet were outside the bar, her husband drove by the couple, perhaps to antagonize Schellet.
"They liked to push each other’s buttons. By the third drive-by, I guess Kevin had had enough, and he stepped out to confront Doug," Redline-Winn said.
Also acknowledging that it was out of character for Schellet and for Winn, who has been the chaplain at the American Legion, Manalapan, for the past year, to want to physically fight anyone, Redline-Winn said, "I don’t know what he [Kevin] was thinking, and now I’ll never know what was in his mind."
She said Winn’s truck grazed Schellet and he spun around and hit the ground, his head striking the pavement.
"He never even put his hands up. Except for the head injury, he didn’t have a mark on him," she said.
Redline-Winn said she doesn’t believe Winn acted maliciously because "he didn’t try to run away; he stayed."
She said her husband has called several times from the jail to tell her he’s sorry.
To some people who were acquainted with both men, the tragedy is doubled by the fact they were both thought by those who know them to be "good men."
"He [Winn] is a good guy, a quiet guy. I didn’t think him the kind of person to hurt anyone. The whole thing’s a damn shame," said Rudy Hlavenka, 71, a part-time bartender at the American Legion where Winn serves as chaplain.
For Gerald Melillo, however, Winn’s remorse doesn’t wash.
"As far as I’m concerned, he killed my friend. Sorry or not doesn’t matter. Accident or not, the fact remains, if he hadn’t gone there looking for trouble, Kevin would be alive," Melillo said.Melillo said he and Schellet’s other close friend, Charlie Dantone, of Englishtown, had been worried since the relationship between Schellet and Redline-Winn began more than two years ago.
"It’s not the nature of a man to be able to watch his wife with another man for two years, partying in the eyes of the public," Melillo said
The two said their friend was in love and therefore laughed off their "bad feeling that something’s going to happen."
Schellet’s sister, Pam, who lives in Toms River with her mother, Shirley, will only speak of the pain for everyone involved.
"It’s going to be harder as the days come and go to face the fact that he’s gone, and so quickly," she said.
Pam said she wants her brother to be remembered as he was, "the biggest gentle giant in the world with a heart to match and a smile that lit up the room."
Schellet was recalled last week as a master carpenter who was as generous with his talent for carpentry as he was meticulous in his craft.
Dantone, 42, said of his friend, "He could fix anything, make anything from anything."
Dantone told how when his sister was getting married, Schellet, "from scraps—I’m not kidding, scraps—he’d saved from different jobs," built Dantone’s sister a gazebo wedding chapel for her outdoor wedding ceremony, "just so she could have her fairy-tale wedding."
"That’s just the kind of guy he was. He loved making people happy. You meet a lot of people in your life, but very few like him," Dantone said.
Melillo, 46, whose friendship with Schellet dates back almost 35 years, hearkened back to 1984 when he was a brand new husband and father with a brand new house and another baby on the way.
He recalls he was working as a mason’s laborer for a boss who wouldn’t give him the raise he needed to support a growing family that would go on to include four children.
Melillo said he knew he needed to develop a skill and so he went to Schellet, who at the time was already esteemed for his talents as a woodworker.
Melillo said he told Schellet he was willing to "cut wood, hoist this or carry that—whatever would get me a better-paying job with the crew he worked with."
There is an old saying that goes something like, "Give a man a fish and he’ll eat that day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat every day of his life."
Perhaps it was the spirit of that philosophy that prompted Schellet to tell Melillo, "You show up Monday and bring a tool pouch, a hammer, a square and a tape, and I’ll teach you to be a carpenter."
Struggling to overcome the emotions the memory invokes, Melillo smiled as he explained how he went on to become a union carpenter.
Schellet’s brother, Jeffrey, having spent his last 10 years living in the "hinterland of Alaska," spoke nostalgically of a brother who, although separated by a great distance, was a kindred spirit who had looked forward to "visiting me so we could fish for salmon and camp where the bears live."