Unlicensed North Brunswick driver sentenced to prison for Route 130 fatal crash

An 18-year-old North Brunswick man has been sentenced to three years in state prison for a 2023 crash in which a 69-year-old New Brunswick man was killed.

Manuel Centeno-Rodriguez was sentenced Friday by Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Craig Corson, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and North Brunswick Police Chief Joesph Battaglia announced.

The three-year prison sentence is subject to the No Early Release Act which means Centeno-Rodriguez will have to serve 85 percent of the sentence without parole. Centeno-Rodriguez also was sentenced to a concurrent 12 months in prison for each of the two counts of assault by auto offenses and will be on parole supervision for three years upon his release from prison, the prosecutor's office said.

Earlier this year Centeno-Rodriguez pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, a second-degree crime, and two counts of assault by auto, a fourth-degree crime.

Around 6:32 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2023, police received a report of a crash in the area of Route 130 and Renaissance Boulevard. When officers arrived, they located a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck that crashed into a Volkswagen Golf, the prosecutor's office said.

As a result of the crash, Silverio Castro-Martinez, 69, of New Brunswick, who was a passenger in the Volkswagen, died from his injuries at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

An investigation by North Brunswick Officer William Bonura and Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office Detective Matthew Colonna determined Centeno-Rodriguez was unlicensed when he was driving the pickup truck that rear-ended the Volkswagen which was stopped in traffic, the prosecutor's office said.

The impact of that crash caused the Volkswagen to hit an Acura RDX that was stopped in front of it, killing Castro-Martinez, the rear driver side passenger in the Volkswagen. Two other occupants in the Volkswagen suffered serious injuries and a third passenger suffered minor injuries and they were all taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for treatment, the prosecutor's office said.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: North Brunswick NJ man sentenced to prison for Route 130 fatal crash