Prosecutor: Former Cop Gets 17 Years for 2021 Vehicular Homicide, DUI

A former police officer has been sentenced to 17 years in state prison on vehicular homicide charges stemming from a fatal motor vehicle collision that killed a husband and wife in 2021, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced on Thursday.

John P. McClave III, of Toms River, a former Hillside (Union County) police officer, was sentenced before Ocean County Superior Court Judge David M. Fritch on Friday in connection with the fatal Tinton Falls crash. McClave received 8 ½ years for each victim, with each sentence to run consecutively. The sentence — resulting from a trail during which McClave was found guilty on March 12 by a jury of two counts of second-degree vehicular homicide — is subject to the provisions of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act (NERA), which mandates that 85 percent be served prior to the possibility of parole.

The case was transferred to Ocean County Superior Court on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, to avoid a potential conflict of interest within the Monmouth Judiciary Vicinage.

The case background …

Shortly before 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021, Tinton Falls police and Wayside Fire Company firefighters responded to a report of a collision that had taken place on Asbury Avenue in the area of the Garden State Parkway overpass.

Upon arrival, officers encountered the two involved vehicles: a 2018 GMC Canyon pickup truck, driven by McClave, and a 2020 Toyota Corolla, driven by 40-year-old Angel L. Acevedo, Jr. of Baltimore, Maryland.

Acevedo and his wife, 35-year-old Daniela Correia Salles, sustained multiple severe injuries and were both pronounced dead at the scene. McClave was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center for treatment of serious but not life-threatening injuries.

An investigation by the Monmouth County Serious Crash Analysis Response Team (SCART), the MCPO Fatal Accident Unit, and the Tinton Falls Police Department determined that McClave was driving his vehicle recklessly while under the influence of intoxicating substances that included THC and alcohol at the time of the collision.

The investigation further determined that McClave’s vehicle did not change direction or slow down significantly after it left the Garden State Parkway lanes, resulting in his vehicle becoming airborne upon hitting an embankment, eventually striking the car occupied by the victims.

The investigation also revealed that McClave was on his way to work at the time of the crash.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office