By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said Monday that it wants to have a trial this year for the motorist charged in the vehicle crash that killed three of his passengers, including a Princeton resident, on I-95.
Luis Delcid-Cardona of Hamilton was back in Mercer County Superior Court for a status conference on his criminal case in which he is charged with three counts of second-degree death by auto for the Dec. 12, 2013, incident on the highway, in Lawrence Township.
During the court appearance, assistant prosecutor Tim Ward was looking for a trial date this year, although Judge William Billmeier sitting in Trenton was unable to schedule one yet. Mr. Delcid-Cardona’s lawyer, Robin Lord, said outside court that she too is hoping to get a trial “as soon as possible” so he can go back to his family.
Mr. Delcid-Cardona said nothing during his court appearance, with the families of two of the victims, Nicole Rodrigues, 20, and Samantha Belliveau, 18, sitting in the courtroom to observe the proceeding. The other victim, Jonathan Rivas, 19, was of Princeton.
Mr. Delcid-Cardona could get 30 years in prison if convicted of their deaths.
Authorities contend that Mr. Delcid-Cardona was under the influence of alcohol when he was at the wheel of the Volkswagen GTS in which he, the two women and his cousin, Mr. Rivas, were travelling. His car “went over a curb that divides the on-ramp lanes from Route 1 and crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder of the ramp,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a 2014 news release announcing his indictment.
The Prosecutor’s Office has a doctor’s report saying alcohol was a substantial factor in the case, it was revealed in court. At the time of the crash, Mr. Delcid-Cardona, now 21, was 19 and under the legal drinking age.
He also is accused of leaving the scene of the accident. Held at the Mercer County Correction Center, he is due back in court May 12.
