Driver who killed sleeping boy in NJ crash gets 15 years in prison

A man who struck a parked car in New Jersey in 2023, killing a young boy who was sleeping inside as his father and brother fished nearby, will spend the next 15 years behind bars.

On Tuesday, Edward W. Johnston, 25, from Galloway Township, NJ, was handed the sentence during an emotional hearing in which friends and family of Javier Velez, 8, of Philadelphia, who was killed on Sunday, July 23, 2023, when a vehicle, driven by Johnston, slammed into a parked car along White Horse Pike in Absecon, took time to speak out about the hurt that lingers long after the incident happened.

During the hearing, prosecutors noted that Johnston had been drinking for several hours before the crash and that his blood alcohol content was twice the legal limit when the incident occurred.

"I just want to ask, why....why? 107 bro?" asked a tearful Orlando Velez, the child's father, referring to the speed at which Johnston's vehicle was traveling when the crash occurred. "I feel nothing for you bro."

The 8-year-old boy's father, surrounded in the courtroom on Tuesday by images of his deceased child, stared at Johnston silently for some time.

Johnston stared back.

"I couldn't get to him bro! I seen his whole last breath...," recalled a tearful Velez. "It should have been you bro."

Kaylah Smith, Javier's mother, told the court how her son's father and brother watched, along with first responders, unable to get to Javier in the mangled vehicle as he died in the crash.

She argued that Johnston's actions that day were no accident and instead, he intentionally got behind the wheel after he had been drinking all day.

"This is what you did to him!" shouted Smith during the day's hearing, holding a photo the totaled vehicle her son died in. "This is what you did to my boy. Can you imagine an eight-year-old boy being in this car?"

At times during the hearing, Johnston appeared to stifle tears as he watched his victim's family members address him in court.

Johnston, too, spoke at the hearing.

Before he read a statement to the victim's family, Johnston's attorney noted that he's been wracked with guilt ever since the incident.

"I know you hate me and will never forgive me," he said. "I don't blame you. I've hated myself for a long time."

In his statement, Johnston said he took responsibility for the crash and he took accountability for Javier's death.

In the end, Johnston was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison -- a term that was negotiated when he plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter earlier this year.

It was a sentence that, Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds said, was "not nearly enough."

"There's not one person who would say that that would be satisfactory, or sufficient," said Reynolds. "Unfortunately, and we feel it in our positions all the time that we are bound to make decision and bound by the law. And, we aren't happy about what the decisions are."

Since the loss of her son, Javier's mother, Kaylah Smith, is working on legislation, that she's calling “Javi’s Law,” that would keep a driver in jail immediately without bail if they kill someone in a crash while driving under the influence.