Ocean County Hit-and-Run: Man Pleads Guilty to Charges

Ocean County Hit-and-Run: Man Pleads Guilty to Charges

According to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, a South Amboy man has entered a guilty plea in connection with the hit-and-run that killed a woman in January 2024 as she was strolling along Route 35 in Brick Township.

In the Jan. 13, 2024, collision that claimed the life of Weehawken resident Julia Sutton, Mark Carey Jr., 21, entered a guilty plea Thursday to one count of deliberately fleeing the scene of a motor vehicle accident that claimed another person's life before Superior Court Judge Kimarie Rahill.

When Carey is sentenced on June 13, the prosecutor's office stated that they are requesting a six-year prison sentence.

On January 13, 2024, at 9:15 a.m., Brick Township Police were called to Route 35 south at Bay Avenue in response to a hit-and-run report. They discovered 56-year-old Sutton laying in the road's shoulder, unconscious, according to the authorities. She was brought to Brick's Ocean University Medical Center and declared deceased.

Sutton was a health and wellness entrepreneur who co-founded the New York-based wellness business Exhale. She served as Vitruvia's chief growth officer. She was a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, the HBS Club of New York, and the COO network after completing the OPM program at Harvard Business School. She was a member of the advisory board for the O'Malley School of Business at Manhattan College. According to her obituary, she was married and had four children.

Authorities concluded that she was struck by a 1999 Ford Explorer belonging to Carey when she was on the shoulder of the road. According to the prosecutor's office, the inquiry revealed that Carey was operating the vehicle when Sutton was struck.

Also according to the prosecutor's office, Carey was arrested on January 14, 2024, at his South Amboy residence and transported to the Ocean County Jail before being released as a result of the New Jersey Bail Reform.