STAR-LEDGER STAFF

A Woodbridge man pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of vehicular homicide, assault and driving while intoxicated in connection with a 1998 car crash that killed a South Plainfield high school student. Louis Corriero, 22, of the Fords section, admitted in Superior Court in New Brunswick that he had been drinking before he drove through a stop sign on Stephenville Parkway in Edison and broadsided another vehicle shortly after 1 a.m. July 12, 1998, killing Kevin Reitz, 17, and injuring two other teenagers. Corriero agreed to surrender to authorities on Friday to await sentencing in December. He faces between five and 13 years in prison, Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch said. In accepting terms of the plea bargain, Corriero avoided a jury trial on more serious charges of aggravated manslaughter, which carries a prison term of up to 30 years, and two counts of aggravated assault. The jury trial was to have begun today. "We felt like it was the right thing to do. He could be out before he's 30," said Corriero's attorney, Gerald Saluti of Newark. Corriero, who was 19 at the time of the accident and had no prior offenses, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 two hours after the crash, Sewitch said. Authorities said he had been speeding on Stephenville Parkway when he plowed into the driver's side of Reitz's Buick Regal, flipping that car onto its roof. Reitz, a high school honor student and artist, died an hour later at a local hospital. One of his passengers, Marceric Nielsen, 17, of Edison, suffered a lacerated spleen, broken ribs, a punctured lung and leg injuries. The other passenger, David Basile, 17, suffered less serious injuries. During a 20-minute appearance before Judge Phillip Lewis Paley, Corriero's parents and his girlfriend sat in the back row as he tearfully answered the judge's and attorneys' questions. Afterward, Corriero embraced his mother and both sobbed in the hallway. Corriero's attorney said he will ask the judge to recommend that Corriero serve his term in a youth correctional facility. Corriero also agreed to pay a fee of $3,631 to cover the prosecutor's cost of hiring a psychopharmacologist to testify about alcohol impairment.

Home News Tribune, 10/23/01

By Michelle Sahn

Middlesex County: A 22-year-old Fords man pleaded guilty yesterday to vehicular homicde and assault charges stemming from an accident that claimed the life of a 17-year-old South Plainfied high school student and seriously injured two other teens.

Lous Corriero Jr. of Fords admitted he had been drinking alcohol before the 1:06 a.m. crash near the intersection of Stephenville Parkway and Plainfield Road in Edison on July 12, 1998.

Kevin Reitz, woh had just completed his junior year of high school, died at the hospital about an hour after the crash, authorities said.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10. As part of the plea agreement, Corriero, who had been free on bail must surrender on Friday to begin serving his time.

As his parents and girlfriend watched, Corriero stood in court yesterday morning with tears streaming down his face and pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, two counts of aggravated assault and driving while intoxicated.

Two hours after the accident, his blood alcohol level was 0.13 percent; the legal limit is 0.10, however, at 19, he was under the legal drinking age at the time of the crash.

Judge Phillip Paley in state Superior Court, New Brunswick, explained to Corriero that he faced a maximum sentence of about 13 years. The vehicular-homicide charge is a second-degree crime that carries a sentence of five to 10 years, while the assault charges are fourth-degree offenses that carry penalties of up to 18 months behind bars.

Corriero was scheduled to go on trial today, and if convicted of the most serious charges, he would have faced a lengthier prison term. He had faced a first-degree charge of aggravated manslaughter, which carries a prison term of 10 to 30 years upon conviction, while two second-degree assault charges carried terms of five to 10 years.

Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch said odds are a jury would have found Corriero guilty of the lesser charge of vehicular homicide, and, Sewitch said, the victim's family had expressed a desire to resolve the case.

Corriero's attorney, Gerald Saluti, said his client turned his life around after the crash.

"It's one of the saddest cases I've worked on," said Saluti.

Saluti said his client had been at a party before the crash.

Sewitch said Corriero drove his 1998 Ford Contour through a stop sign on Stephenville Parkway and collided with a 1979 Buick headed southbound on Plainfield Road. The force of the collision caused the Buick to flip on its roof, and its right rear tire snapped off the axle, said Sewitch.

Marceric Nielsen, the 17-year-old backseat passenger, had to have his spleen removed, undergo knee surgery and also suffered kidney injuries, broken ribs, a punctured lung, and severe head trauma. David Basile, 17, the front-seat passenger, suffered a lacerated spleen.

Reitz and Basile were friends, and were invited to the home of another friend that night - Nielsen's girlfriend's house. She and Reitz had been in a band together, and she had invited Reitz and Basile, as well as Nielsen, over for dinner.

After dinner, they discussed music equipment, and the three boys decided to take a ride to pick up one of Neilsen's friends. Reitz was excited because he had received his driver's license about two and a half weeks earlier, so he offered to drive the boys to the other friend's home. They were on their way there when the fatal crash occurred.