Kearny Man Sentenced to 7 1/2 Years For 2019 Fatal Hit-and-Run of Child

Photo Credit: Union County Prosecutor’s Office                                                                                                                                                                                     Union County Prosecutor William A. Daniel has announced that a Kearny man who was convicted by a jury in March, 2022 for fatally striking a 12-year old child in Union, and fleeing the scene in July of 2019, was sentenced to seven and-a-half years in State Prison on Friday.  

39-year old Jose Marrero of Kearny was sentenced Friday for knowingly leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, by Union County Superior Court Judge Robert Kirsch. 

It was just before 8 p.m. on July 17, 2019, when Union Police Department patrol units responded to a report of a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle in the area of Forest Drive and Galloping Hill Road, according to Assistant Prosecutors Scott Peterson and James Brady who prosecuted the case. There, they found an unresponsive 12-year old child, Jeremy Maraj of Union, who was rushed to University Hospital in Newark.  He succumbed to his injuries two days later. 

At trial, the State revealed that at the time of the accident Marrero  was driving his work vehicle, a 2016 Nissan NV200 Cargo Van, when he struck Maraj on the shoulder of Galloping Hill Road.  Witnesses to the accident testified that Marrero didn’t stop and fled the scene.  Video surveillance obtained from the area and parts from the van recovered at the scene ultimately led Detectives to Marrero, Peterson and Brady said.