Jury: Higbee Not Guilty

Fatal Crash Scene photos by: Alex CohenUpdated, Monday, June 8 at 5:00 p.m.
COURT HOUSE – The jury in the trial of State Trooper Robert Higbee found him not guilty just before 5:00 p.m. on both counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of Jacqueline and Christina Becker.
Updated, Monday, June 8 at 11:20 a.m.
COURT HOUSE – The jury asked to hear Higbee’s testimony again. During the trial, the court record has been kept by stenographers, and one of them will have to read back Higbee’s testimony from start to finish including both direct testimony and his cross-examination.
Jurors were unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for a full day June 5. But they did have a few questions for the court. Just after 9 a.m., jurors sent a note to Judge Batten requesting a calculator and then a ruler.
Updated, Thursday, June 4 at 4:30 p.m.
COURT HOUSE — Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten charged the jury on points of law in the vehicular homicide trial of N.J. Trooper Robert Higbee’s, concluding at 4:15 p.m.
At that time, the panel of 14 was reduced to 12, with two alternates being selected; in the event they are required to stand in for one of the 12 for any reason.
Batten told defense and prosecution attorneys he wanted jurors to get a sense of direction before calling them back into the courtroom at 4:30 p.m. to decide if they desired to continue their deliberation or retire for the evening and resume deliberation at 9 a.m. Friday, June 5.
Updated, Thursday, June 4 at 2:05 p.m.
COURT HOUSE — N.J. Trooper Robert Higbee’s trial was recessed for one hour at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 4 after First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Mayer rested the state’s closing case to the 12 members of the jury.
Meyer recited all aspects that the state had proven in the case: that Higbee was driving the vehicle that caused the deaths of the Becker sisters on Sept. 27, 2006, and that the deaths were caused because Higbee was driving recklessly.
He focused on photographs that indicated that stop sign would have been more visible at night than in the daytimes, since it would be lit by headlights and reflect its color.
Meyer showed charts of the Power Control Module (PCM) of the trooper’s car that showed when the accelera-tor and brake was applied, and then those actions likely took place.
He said the final application of the trooper’s brakes took place over one second before the two vehicles collided, and that reduced the patrol care from 75 mph to 64-65mph at the point of impact.
“What was that braking in response to? Not the stop sign,” Meyer said.
He said Higbee disregarded the risk, which he termed a “gross deviation.”
“How can that be reconciled with anything by gross deviation? The risk of causing death of another,” Meyer said.
He cited State Police stand operating procedure, which dictates that any vehicle in pursuit of another still has to stop at stop signs.
“That applies to everyone all the time. The operator of any pursuit vehicle must reduce speed to avoid colli-sion,” said Meyer.
Meyer urged jurors to “Be guided by the evidence, not passion, not prejudice, not sympathy, not concern for ramifications, but a fait and impartial application of the facts.”
“I suggest to you that there can be no question. You must do what the facts and the evidence in this case compel you to find, beyond reasonable doubt. Yu must then do what justice compels and demands. Find the defendant criminally responsible for his behavior,” Meyer concluded.
***
EARLIER THURSDAY: N.J. Trooper Robert Higbee’s defense attorney William Subin concluded his closing argument at 11:50 a.m. Thursday, June 4, and Judge Raymond Batten recessed the trial for 10 minutes prior to the prosecution’s closing statement, which is expected to last until at least 1:15.
Subin told the jury that the prosecution did not produce witnesses that showed Higbess acted with criminal intent. He noted that the case was handled as an accident by State Police investigators and Medical Examiners until the Cape May County Prosecutor, on Feb. 27, 2007, presented the case to the grand jury.
“What occurred? What turned this from an accident into a crime?” Subin asked the jurors.
He noted that Higbee will bear the accident in mind for the rest of is life.
“It was a tragic mistake with ghastly consequences in which he did not perceive the stop sign,” said Subin.
“We can’t assume a criminal wrong doing in this case. That is not fair. That is not just,” said Subin. Updated, Thursday, June 4 at 10:15 p.m.
COURT HOUSE — Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten heard various points of law from prosecution and defense that they will use in closing arguments in the vehicular homicide trial of N.J. State Trooper Robert Higbee later Thursday, June 4. Batten placed the court on a 15 minute recess at 10 a.m.
It is expected that the jury will be brought in at that time and the trial will proceed.
Updated, Tuesday, June 2 at 12:47 p.m.
COURT HOUSE — No closing arguments will be heard Wednesday, June 3 as expected in the vehicular homicide trial of State Trooper Robert Higbee. Those arguments will be heard Thursday, June 4.
Most of the day was taken up as Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten conferred with both defense and prosecution attorneys regarding what legal instructions he will give the jury during his charge.
Higbee is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide for the deaths of Christina and Jacqueline Becker on Sept. 27, 2007.
RECAP:
N.J. State Trooper Robert Higbee testified Monday, June 1 that he had no memory of the Sept. 27, 2006 fatal crash for which he is facing two counts of vehicular homicide.
On that date just after 10 p.m., Higbee’s patrol car crashed into a minivan that Christina, 19, and Jacqueline, 17, Becker were traveling in. Those two cars then struck a third vehi-cle, occupied by Robert and Michael Taylor, which was stopped across the intersection of Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads.
The Becker sisters were pronounced dead at the scene.
Higbee, 27, of was on the stand the entire day and presented testimony that included his background as a high school and collegiate athlete; his employment history as a bartender, salesman and teacher; and eventually his application, acceptance, training and career as a state trooper.
He said he had many hours of vehicle safety training.
In testifying about the night of the accident, Higbee said he had observed a speeder travel-ing northbound on Stagecoach Road at approximately 65 mph, nearly twice the speed limit of 35 mph.
He said he turned around and attempted pursue the speeder following Attorney General guidelines that require troopers to close the distance before activating overhead lights and sirens.
He said he did not see the stop sign at the intersection or the “stop ahead” sign 500 feet before the intersection.
Higbee was expected to continue testifying yesterday and to be followed by other defense witnesses.
Updated, Thursday May 28 at 2:50 p.m.
COURT HOUSE — The defense began to present its case in the trial of Trooper Robert Higbee, who is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of the two Up-per Township sisters.
On Sept. 27, 2006, just after 10 p.m., Higbee’s patrol car crashed into a minivan that Christina, 19, and Jacqueline, 17, Becker were traveling in. Those two cars then struck a third vehicle, occupied by Robert and Michael Taylor, which was stopped across the inter-section of Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads.
The Becker sisters were pronounced dead at the scene.
The first defense witness was also the first person on the scene. Janet Harmelin, a regis-tered nurse of Upper Township, came across the aftermath of the collision between Higbee’s police car and the Beckers’ minivan just after the 10 p.m. crash.
Harmelin told the jury that she saw two bodies outside one of the vehicles.
Harmelin said she tried to help the people in the third vehicle, Robert Taylor and his son Michael and once she saw that they were OK, then went to the State Police car.
She said she found Higbee with his eyes closed, leaning back in his seat motioning with his right hand as if he were reaching for his police radio. Harmelin asked if he was all right but Higbee did not respond.
According to Harmelin, “He was not alert.”
She told the jury that, “he seemed to be semiconscious.”
On May 28, Professor Geoffrey Loftus, a psychologist from the University of Washington in Seattle, took the witness stand to explain to the jury human responses to factors such as stress as well as memory issues.
The defense has focused on several issues it believes played a part in the Sept. 27, 2006 crash between Higbee’s police car and a minivan occupied by the Becker sisters and the statements given after the incident.
Higbee gave a statement three weeks later where he recalled stopping at the intersection of Tuckahoe and Stagecoach roads prior to the crash, but evidence found by the event data recorder and accident reconstruction indicated that his police car did not stop.
The Taylors also gave testimony that the remembered seeing Higbee’s trooper car accelerate thought he intersection, but evidence also revealed that there had been heavy braking on the part of the trooper car.
Loftus told the jury that memory doesn’t work like a video recording, but rather begins as fragments that filter bit by bit into the brain. He said that it was possible for memory to change and be reconstructed.
“We can’t distinguish which part of memory came from the original event or what was post incident information,” he said.
Loftus offered the explanation that both the Taylors’ testimony and Higbee’s original statement was a product of post information that added to their memory and made sense.
Loftus said that the collision would not have been easily memorizeable due to a number of factors: darkness, extremely stressful, the witnesses were involved in the crash and attention was on a number of things and not focused.
Loftus also presented a theory that Higbee’s perception might have been skewed because a stop sign at the intersection of Roosevelt Boulevard, which was in the distance, was more visible than the one at Tuckahoe and Stagecoach roads.
Updated, Wednesday May 27 at 4:30 p.m.
COURT HOUSE – Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten denied a defense motion for acquittal May 27 in the vehicular homicide case of Trooper Robert Higbee.
Defense attorney D. William Subin argued that the judge should grant a motion of acquit-tal following the end of the state’s case.
Batten found that there is sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude that Higbee acted recklessly on Sept. 27, 2006 when he ran through an intersection, striking a minivan occupied by sisters Jacqueline and Christina Becker.
Batten found it notable that Higbee had gone through the intersection himself just moments before the crash. Higbee had been traveling southbound, but after he clocked a speeder he did a K-turn and went north through the same intersection he had just traveled.
Updated, Wednesday May 27 at 12:20 p.m.
COURT HOUSE – The state rested its case against State Trooper Robert Higbee shortly after noon on May 27.
The defense will begin calling their witnesses after the jury returns from their mid-day break at 2 p.m.
Earlier this morning, Dr. Charles Siebert Jr. of the Southern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office took the stand to explain to the jury what was found during the autopsies of Jacqueline and Christina Becker, based on reports made by medical examiner Dr. Chase Blanchard
Although Siebert did not perform the autopsies on the Beckers, he described in his testimony the injuries both suffered as a result of the Sept. 27, 2006 car crash. Jacqueline Becker, the driver, had numerous injuries to her head and chest. The right side of her forehead had a gaping wound, he said, that multiple bone fractures could be see along with some brain exposure.
Siebert said that Christina Becker’s injuries were similar to her sisters, with a large gaping head wound and multiple bone fractures.
He said they also had internal injures, particularly to the lungs and brain, as a result of the crash.
According to Sieber, the cause of death for both Becker sisters was multiple blunt force trauma.
Updated, Tuesday May 26 at 11:30 a.m.
COURT HOUSE – After a four-day break over the Memorial Day weekend, testimony in the vehicular homicide trial of State Trooper Robert Higbee resumed as Sgt. 1st Class John McMahon, an accident reconstructionist with the State Police returned to the witness stand.
During cross examination, defense attorney D. William Subin asked McMahon if there were inconsistencies between the testimony of Robert and Michael Taylor, who were in the third vehicle and witnesses to the Sept. 27, 2006 crash that killed Christina and Jacqueline Becher, and the data found in the trooper car’s event data recorder and the accident reconstruction.
The Taylors testified that they believed Higbee accelerated through the intersection before the collision. McMahon told the jury in cross examination that both the trooper car’s event data recorder and his accident reconstruction data indicated that Higbee attempted heavy braking directly before the crash.
According to McMahon’s testimony, he said that the stop sign at the next intersection with Roosevelt Boulevard is more prominent prior to reaching 350 feet before the Stagecoach and Tuckahoe road intersection. But after 350 feet, the sign at Tuckahoe and Stagecoach roads is the prominent sign
Updated, Thursday May 21 at 4:20 p.m.
COURT HOUSE — Former Ford Motor Company engineer Richard Ruth took the witness stand in the vehicular homicide trial of State Trooper Robert Higbee on May 21.
On Sept. 27, 2006, just after 10 p.m., Higbee’s patrol car crashed into a minivan that Christina, 19, and Jacqueline, 17, Becker were driving in. Higbee was attempting to close the gap on a speeder before the collision occurred.
Ruth is an expert in the event data recorders (EDR), commonly called the “black box” found in Ford automobiles like the trooper car State Trooper Robert Higbee was driving. The device records about the speeding and braking information
Ruth told the jury that when power is lost, such in this crash, all the information is preserved prior to the collision.
“You can be confident that you will have the first 25 seconds prior to power being lost,” Ruth said.
Ruth said that the collision reconstruction data and the event data recorded information were very close.
“That’s a conservative estimate. The speed may have actually been higher because information recorded indicated that there was braking,” he said.
Using a graph, Ruth went over the data taken from the EDR from Higbee’s trooper car.
The vehicle speed, marked in red dots, he said was recorded 25 seconds before impact at speeds between 60 and 70 mph. The highest speed reached was 79.6 mph. He noted that the last data point before impact recorded Higbee’s speed at 65 miles per hour.
The EDR recorded the brake switch, marked by green lines. Ruth said that the break switch could not determine how hard the brake was applied, just if the brake light comes on.
Ruth said that a speed trace used to infer how quickly the vehicle was slowing down, which is generally applied to braking. He said that just prior to the accident brakes were applied, which is called impact avoidance.
Approximately the last half-mile of travel, he said were recorded.
Ruth told First Assistant Prosecution J. David Meyer under direct examination that EDR was broken down to phases. The first phase accelerated to pursuit speed, then maintained pursuit speed. Next, Ruth said the EDR shows that Higbee’s foot hovered on the brake.
“The foot of the driver was touching the brake but not pushing it alt the way down,” he said.
The fourth phase, Ruth said, was a maintaining of pursuit speed.
“And how far from impact was that?” Meyer asked.
“That was between 1.6 and 1.6 seconds to impact, which was 276 to 166 feet to impact,” he said.
The final phase was “avoid impact,” which was about 1.5 seconds or 144 to 19 feet to impact.
Defense attorney D. William Subin objected to the use of the word “pursuit.” State Police officials have testified that a pursuit is when a suspect is fleeing from a police officer. Hig-bee was attempting to close the gap on a speeder when the crash occurred.
Cross examination of the witness is expected to continue beyond 4:30 p.m. today.
Updated, Thursday May 21 at 10:35 a.m.
COURT HOUSE – Former Ford Motor Co. employee Richard Ruth, an expert in the event data recorders, or EDRs, found in Ford vehicles testified about the speeding and braking information taken from State Trooper Robert Higbee’s police car.
Updated, Wednesday May 20 at 12:00 p.m.
COURT HOUSE – The trial of State Trooper Robert Higbee was postponed Wednesday morning because defense attorney D. William Subin was ill.
The trial should resume Thursday morning with the testimony of former Ford Motor Company engineer Richard Ruth. Because Ruth traveled from from Michigan to testify, Sgt. 1st Class John McMahon, still undergoing cross-examination, will return to the stand at a later time.
Ruth is an expert in the event data recorders found in Ford automobiles like the trooper car State Trooper Robert Higbe was driving.
McMahon told the jury on Tuesday that Higbee had the right to speed while closing the gap on a speeder on Sept. 27, 2006. However, there is no provision in the law that would allowed him to ignore a stop sign.
McMahon, an accident reconstruction expert with the State Police, calculated that Higbee’s police car was traveling between 57 and 62 mph when it crashed into the minivan occupied by Jacqueline and Christina Becker. McMahon said the Beckers’ Dodge minivan was traveling at a speed of between 42 and 49 mph at the time of the collision.
The police car and minivan struck each other twice and then those two vehicles struck a third vehicle, a Mazda minivan occupied by Robert and Michael Taylor. McMahon said that the Taylor’s car was a case of “being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
During the start of his cross-examination of McMahon, defense attorney D. William Subin focused on driver perception and reaction times, specifically when they are processing various stimuli. Subin also asked about a driver’s peripheral vision and how it could be affected at night and by any obstructions such as the equipment in Higbee’s police car, including the radar device and camera.
Updated, Tuesday May 19 at 11:30 p.m.
COURT HOUSE – One juror was excused this morning after his wife suffered a stroke on Monday, May 18.
Fifteen jurors will continue to hear the case in the trial of Trooper Robert Higbee, charged with two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of Jacqueline and Christina Becker. Before the trial began, 16 jurors were picked to hear the case, but only 12 will deliberate to reach a verdict. Additional jurors were selected in case of such emergencies.
State Police Sgt. First Class John McMahon returned to the witness stand to testify about the investigation into the crash. Defense attorney William Subin is continuing cross examination of McMahon this afternoon.
Updated, Monday May 18 at 3:30 p.m.
COURT HOUSE — The jury in the trial of Trooper Robert Higbee was sent home at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 18 after one of the jurors learned his wife had suffered a stroke.
The jury will return at 9 a.m. tomorrow and is expected to hear from Engineer Richard Ruth, an expert in the event data recorders found in Ford automobiles like the trooper car Higbee was driving.
The day began with State Police Sgt. First Class John McMahon who testified that the stop sign at the intersection of Tuckahoe and Stagecoach roads in Marmora is visible 350 feet from the intersection, but prior to that it is partially obstructed.
According to McMahon’s testimony, he said that the stop sign at the next intersection with Roosevelt Boulevard is more prominent prior to reaching 350 feet before the Stagecoach and Tuckahoe road intersection. But after 350 feet, the sign at Tuckahoe and Stagecoach roads is the prominent sign.
Updated, Thursday May 14 at 3:45 p.m.
Jurors heard from State Trooper Robert Higbee for the first time on May 14 when First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer played the tape-recorded statement Higbee gave State Police Detective Karl Ulbrich on Oct. 17, 2006.
That statement was given several weeks after Higbee crashed into a minivan occupied by Jacqueline Becker, 17, and her sister, Christina Becker, 19, at the intersection of Tuckahoe and Stagecoach roads in Marmora on Sept. 27, 2006. The sisters were killed as a result of the collision.
Ulbrich testified about the investigation following the Sept. 27, 2006 collision and his re-sponsibility in interviewing witnesses, including Higbee.
Higbee said that he had a made a K-turn to go after a speeder that was going about 50 mph in a 35 mph zone. He said it was “just a motor vehicle stop” and wasn’t prepared to stop the vehicle at all costs.
Higbee said that he didn’t notice any other vehicles, beside the speeder’s tailights, in the area as he approached the intersection of Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads. However he said, “I remember stopping and looking both ways and proceeding through the intersection.”
Higbee later said on the tape that he might not have been clear exactly where is stopped. He said he could have stopped at a driveway at the Wayside Village shopping center or mis-judged the stop sign at nearby Roosevelt Road.
Additional investigation revealed that Higbee was traveling at about 65 miles per hour when his police car crashed into the minivan carrying the Becker sisters.
The prosecution is expected to call the expert witness to testify on evidence provided by the trooper car’s power train control module, or event data recorder, when court resumes on Monday, May 18.
Updated, Wednesday May 13 at 3:25 p.m.
COURT HOUSE – Testimony in the trial of State Trooper Robert Higbee got to a late start this morning while Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten heard from the attorneys on the issue of evidence preserved following the crash.
Testimony resumed with State Police Sgt. Anthony Mertis, who told the jury about his arrival at the scene of the fatal crash on the night of Sept. 27, 2006. Mertis said he traveled with another trooper to the intersection of Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads on arriving on the scenes at 10:12 p.m., minutes after the collision happened, as evident by the video taken by the camera in the troop car he was riding in.
That video was shown to the jury, with Mertis describing the scene of the crash.
Updated, Tuesday May 12 at 4:15 p.m.
COURT HOUSE — Joshua Wigglesworth, the speeder Trooper Robert Higbee was chasing on Sept. 27, 2007 before his car collided with the van carrying Jacqueline and Christina Becker, testified that he was rushing home to meet his curfew as he passed Higbee’s trooper car on Stagecoach Road.
“I don’t know exactly what time it was, I just knew it was late and I was trying to get home in time,” Wigglesworth said.
Wigglesworth said he was returning from his girlfriend’s house and knew he was at least 15 mph over the 35 mph speed limit when the car passed him. He said he saw the trooper’s car perform a K-turn and he then slowed down to 35 mph, expecting to be pulled over.
Wigglesworth said he was waiting to see the trooper’s emergency lights or hear the siren, but neither came.
Wigglesworth continued down the road and in his rear view mirror saw the crash that he would later learn killed Jacqueline and Christina Becker.
He told the jury that he had first denied knowing anything about the incident because he was scared, but almost four weeks after the crash came gave a statement to police.
Earlier today, Michael Taylor testified that he saw a police car accelerating toward the stop sign at the intersection of Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads just before Trooper Robert Higbee’s car collided with a minivan occupied by sisters Jacqueline and Christina Becker.
Taylor and his father Robert Taylor were heading home, south on Stagecoach Road, after finishing a couple of late-night errands on Sept. 27, 2006 just after 10 p.m.
Their route of travel home brought them to the stop sign at, Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads, and stopped at the sign. Taylor told the jury that he recognized the police car by its logo and said, “as he [the trooper’s car] got closer he accelerated more. It made a distinct sound.”
Taylor said his attention was on the police car and he didn’t notice the Becker’s van until the collision occurred.
“I was completely shocked,” Taylor said. “I remember a very loud bang and the car hitting us and then my vision was tilted.”
After their van stopped moving from the force of the collision, Taylor said that he saw his father holding his face.
“Blood was trickling off his nose,” Taylor said. “He seemed to be in pain, but he said he was all right.”
Taylor said that after making sure his father was OK, he exited the van and went to check on the other occupants of the other vehicles.
Taylor said that he went up to Higbee’s passenger window and asked if he was OK. Higbee, he said, looked to be in pain and trapped in his car but said he was fine.
“I told him that my father and I were OK and that I hadn’t checked on the other van yet. He seemed surprised that there was another vehicle,” Taylor said.
Taylor testified that he went to check on the van that the Becker sisters had been traveling in.
Taylor said that he got within a short distance of the van and noticed the car’s break lights but no noise.
“Something came over me and I knew whoever was in that vehicle didn’t make it, Taylor told the jury.
Testimony concluded for the day after the jury heard from Joseph Repici III, who was the deputy chief of the Upper Township Rescue Squad at the time of the incident.
Repici testified that after he arrived on scene he was asked to attend to Higbee, who Repici said was limping and complaining of pain in his left side and left leg. Repici said that during his examination, Higbee told him that he knew he was involved in an accident but didn’t know exactly what happened.
Court resumes tomorrow at 9 a.m.
Updated, Monday May 11 at 4:30 p.m.
Robert Taylor, driver of the third vehicle involved in a collision when State Trooper Robert Higbee’s car collided with a minivan occupied by sisters Jacqueline and Christina Becker, told his story of the fatal crash in Superior Court here Monday afternoon.
On Sept. 27, 2006, just after 10 p.m., Higbee’s patrol car crashed into a minivan that Christina, 19, and Jacqueline, 17, Becker were driving in.
Robert Taylor and his son Michael testified that they were returning home after running errands, first stopping at the local Wawa and then a transmission repair shop to retrieve personal effects from another vehicle.
Their route of travel home took them to the stop sign at Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads, and stopped at the sign. At the intersection Michael, his son, pointed out “look at this guy coming up.”
Taylor said that he then saw the white car coming fast to the intersection. Taylor testified that he didn’t see the other van approaching at all. He just saw the impact and felt his vehicle move with the force of the collision.
After the crash, Taylor said he had facial cuts, his leg hurt and he couldn’t open his driver’s side door.
Taylor told the jury he first checked to see if his son was safe. Michael, he said, responded that he was all right, pointed out that one of the cars involved in the crash was a trooper car and got out of their van to see if he could be of help.
Taylor said that when Michael returned to the van he told him that, “they’re dead,” referring to the occupants of the other van.
Father and son then waited for emergency help to arrive.
State Trooper John Schulke, who was the first state trooper to respond to the crash scene at Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads, testified earlier that he saw the three cars involved in the collision and then encountered Higbee as he walked down Stagecoach Road from the Beckers’ minivan.
“He appeared to be soft-spoken and he appeared to have an upset look on his face,” Schulke said of Higbee’s appearance after the collision.
Testimony will continue tomorrow at 9 a.m.
Updated Thursday, May 7 at 4:30 p.m.
Superior Court Raymond Batten adjourned court for a three-day break. He warned jurors to continue to stay away from media accounts of the trial and not to discuss the case to anyone. The trial will resume Monday, May 11 at 9 a.m.
Updated Thursday, May 7 at 3:30 p.m.
Anthony Cinaglia testified that when he approached State Trooper Robert Higbee after his police car crashed at the intersection of Tuckahoe and Stagecoach roads on Sept. 27, 2006, Higbee told him he was OK and to go check on the other people.
Cinaglia testified that he reached the minivan that had been carrying Jacqueline and Christina Becker, the Upper Township sisters who died in the crash. He put his hand on the neck of one of the victims, but found no pulse. He noted that as he approached “the scene was very still.”
Updated Thursday, May 7:
The state’s first witness on May 7 in the vehicular manslaughter trial of State Trooper Robert Higbee was the victims’ grandfather, Caesar Caiafa.
Caiafa described the night of Sept. 27, 2006 when he learned that his grandchildren were killed when Higbee’s patrol car crashed into the minivan that Christina, 19, and Jacqueline, 17, Becker were driving.
“There weren’t enough tissues to dry our eyes,” he said of finding out about the tragic outcome of the collision.
Marmora resident Karen Giblin was at her kitchen table opening her mail shortly before 10 p.m. on Sept. 27, 2006 when she heard a car speed by her home on Stagecoach Road toward the nearby intersection.
“I was worried that they wouldn’t be able to stop,” Giblin testified. “And then I heard a really loud crash and then silence.”
During cross-examination, defense attorney William Subin asked if Giblin had any way of knowing what type of car was going past her home and exactly how fast it was going.
“I have no way of knowing,” Giblin responded.
She told jurors that she ran out of her house after hearing the crash, looked down the street and saw evidence of an accident and called 911. She then said she continued to the intersection of Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads.
Giblin said that she saw a police officer, Higbee, get out of the passenger door of his police car that was off the road and two other people, Robert Taylor and his son Michael, exit their vehicle. Both groups, she said appeared unharmed.
Emergency personnel, she said were not yet on the scene. However, a small group of other people, possibly neighbors or other motorists were at the scene.
Giblin testified that she then started walking down the street toward the third vehicle that was further down the road.
“I started to walk toward the other vehicle and someone walking back up toward me said ‘don’t go down there,’” Giblin said.
Both the prosecution and the defense questioned Giblin on her familiarity with the intersection.
Besides that person that told her not to continue to the third vehicle, Giblin testified un-der cross-examination that she had no interaction with anyone involved or on the scene.
After breaking for lunch, three jurors came forward with various concerns. However the court determined that the issues would not impede them from fairly determining the out-come of the case.
One juror had recognized Giblin as someone who worked in a pharmacy she frequented. The juror said that she didn’t know Giblin personally, would continue to stay away from that pharmacy through the duration of the trial and would not impact her decision on evaluating the evidence in the case.
Another juror was going to hire a dog sitter while she was busy at the trial, but decided to make other plans after the dog sitter informed her that she worked with the defendant’s wife.
The third juror came forward with concerns that his profession gave him a heightened understanding of photos, particularly the aerial photos, in regards to signage. Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten told the juror that the court was aware of his occupation before he was chosen as a juror. Batten said that each member of the jury brings their own unique life experiences to the case.
The three jurors were thanked for bringing their concerns to the court and will continue to hear the case.
Wednesday, May 6:
COURT HOUSE – The accident that took the life of Christina and Jacqueline Becker certainly was tragic, but was it a crime?
That was the question posed during opening arguments in the trial of State Trooper Robert Higbee, who is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of the two Upper Township sisters.
On Sept. 27, 2006, just after 10 p.m., Higbee’s patrol car crashed into a minivan that Christina, 19, and Jacqueline, 17, Becker were driving in. The sisters were headed to the Wawa close to their grandparent’s home to pick up milk for the next morning’s breakfast. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
Now, over two years later, a jury must decide whether Higbee acted recklessly when he ran a stop sign at the intersection of Stagecoach and Tuckahoe roads.
First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer told jurors that he believed Higbee didn’t mean to end the life of the Becker sisters.
“He’s no doubt remorseful,” Meyer said. “But that doesn’t excuse his action.”
He argued that Higbee acted recklessly when he drove through the Marmora intersection that night when he was trying to close the gap between his vehicle and a speeder. The speeder, Meyer said, was a 17-year-old teenager who was rushing home from his girlfriend’s house to make it home in time to meet his curfew.
Meyer noted that Higbee first claimed to have stopped at the intersection, but later evidence he said provided by his car’s power train control module, or event data recorder, told a different story.
The device, he said, recorded information 25 seconds before the crash, including Higbee’s speed.
“He was going between 70 and 80 mph while he was trying to close the gap between his car and the speeder,” said Meyer. “It shows his foot had contact with the brake pedal, but no where near the intensity needed to brake completely.”
Meyer said that at about 200 feet away from the approaching stop sign, Higbee took his foot away from the brake pedal and accelerated again. At the last second, Meyer said that Higbee hit the brakes.
“But it was too little too late for Jacqueline and Christina,” he said.
“That mistake is not a minor mistake,” Meyer said. “What happened here was a gross error.”
Meyer said that society demands that law enforcement officials act reasonably and responsibly.
“Society demands that,” he told jurors. “And the Becker sisters deserved that.”
Defense attorney D. William Subin told the jurors that his client was on duty and abiding by his obligation to go after anyone breaking the law.
“You cannot judge he acted recklessly in this case by the tragic results,” Subin said.
Subin said that Higbee had no way of knowing who was in the speeding car he was pursuing and was acting in accordance with state police policy when he was attempting to “close the gap.”
Subin said according to the NJ Attorney General’s policy, a police trooper closes the gap between his patrol vehicle and the speeder’s vehicle before activating the emergency lights and sirens.
The intersection where the accident took place, Subin argued is dark and dangerous during the nighttime hours. He added that Higbee had a wide patrol area and was not as familiar with the area as the prosecution suggested.
The intersection, he said, was dimly lit, had a wide paved shoulder and the stop sign was further to the right than normal. At the intersection, vehicles traveling northbound and southbound on Stagecoach Road had to stop at a stop sign, while those traveling on Tuckahoe Road had the right of way.
“He’s looking straight ahead at the taillights of the speeding vehicle,” Subin suggested to the jury of Higbee’s approach to the intersection. “He might have judged the stop sign further up the road, at Roosevelt as the stop sign.”
Subin told the jury to use their common sense when deciding the facts of the case and asked them to view his client as both a state trooper and a human being.
Opening arguments concluded late Wednesday, May 6. The state’s first witness will testify Thursday morning.