By John Burton
FREEHOLD – A county grand jury on Monday indicted a Middletown woman investigators say was responsible for the hit-and-run death of an Atlantic Highlands teenage girl last summer.
The grand jury handed up the four-count indictment for Toni A. Marletta, 50, a resident of Thompson Avenue in Middletown’s Leonardo section, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
Marletta faces charges of one count of second degree knowingly leaving the scene of an accident resulting in a fatality; one count of second degree endangering the welfare of a child; and two counts of third degree endangering the welfare of a child, resulting from a July 7, 2015 motor vehicle collision in Leonardo.
In addition, Marletta last summer was issued a motor vehicle summons related to the collision for failure to report a motor vehicle collision; operating an uninsured motor vehicle; and for having an unsafe tire, according to law enforcement authorities.
Middletown police were dispatched at approximately 8:24 p.m. last July 7 to state Highway 36 in the area of Avenue D in Leonardo for a report of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Responding officers discovered the victim, 15-year-old Marissa Procopio, Atlantic Highlands. Procopio was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, where she died the following day from her injuries.
The investigation conducted by Middletown police detectives with the assistance of the county prosecutor’s office determined Procopio was crossing Highway 36 at the Avenue D intersection when she was hit by the vehicle allegedly driven by Marletta.
Family members said at the time that Procopio, a Henry Hudson Regional School student, was crossing the highway on her way home to meet her 9 p.m. curfew.
Authorities charged that Marletta had three 16-year-old girls in the car at the time of the collision and fled the scene following the collision. Police were able to identify Marletta’s vehicle through security video recorded by a business in the vicinity of the collision. When Marletta’s vehicle was located that evening, investigators said it displayed damage consistent with the collision.
Marletta turned herself in to Middletown police and was released pending the outcome of the investigation. Authorities on July 15, 2015, initially charged her with knowingly leaving the scene of an accident and took her into custody, taking her to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, Freehold, on $150,000 bail without the option to post a 10 percent bond. Succeeding in her subsequent bail reduction hearing, Marletta was allowed to post a 10 percent bond and was released last Aug. 4, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
A conviction on a charge of the leaving the scene of an accident resulting in a fatality carries with it a maximum penalty of 10 years in state prison; the second degree endangering offense also could result in a maximum 10-year prison sentence pending a conviction; and the third degree endangering offenses could result in three-to-five-year prison sentences for each charge, according to the prosecutor’s office.
