New York man sentenced for hit-and-run, eluding in Seaside Heights
A Staten Island man who caused an accident in Seaside Heights, fled the scene, and led police on a pursuit around and then outside of the borough has received a prison sentence.
Antwan McPhatter, 27, of Staten Island, New York previously pleaded guilty and has now been sentenced to five years in New Jersey State Prison for Eluding, 30-days in the Ocean County Jail for Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving Property Damage, and has had his license and driving privileges suspended for six-months, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer.
The crash occurred in Seaside Heights on August 19, 2021 and borough police responded to Blaine Avenue and the Boulevard around 6:30 pm that night on a call about a hit-and-run incident, according to Prosecutor Billhimer, and then learned that a 2015 Jeep Cherokee had crashed into an unoccupied vehicle and then fled the scene.
Seaside Heights Police Officers caught up to the Jeep Cherokee and tried to pull it over as McPhatter was driving in the wrong direction along Sheridan Avenue.
When McPhatter spotted police lights in his rearview mirror and heard the sirens, he slammed on the gas and floored it northbound on Route 35, then made a right turn onto Beach Drive in the Ortley Beach section of Toms River, then stopped at the end of that road briefly, and then picked up again flying west back towards Route 35, fled a stop sign, got onto Route 35, and then struck a Seaside Heights Police vehicle and then a utility pole which then fell on top of his vehicle.
McPhatter then tried plan-b, to run on foot, but police arrested him right then and there.
Prosecutor Billhimer said that following the pursuit and crash caused by McPhatter, there were two Seaside Heights Police Officers brought to Community Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.
McPhatter was brought there too, but to have blood drawn by orders of a court-authorized warrant, and was then brought to the Ocean County Jail, where he been since his arrest.
Prosecutor Billhimer said that the blood drawn laboratory results showed that McPhatter was "under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana at the time of the incident and was therefore unfit to operate a motor vehicle."
Ocean County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Schron handled this case on behalf of the State.