Texting-and-driving trial: Cop told her 'I suggest that you pray'
Kathleen HopkinsFREEHOLD - Alexandra Mansonet said she never responded to a text message from her former sister-in-law about their dinner plans on Sept. 28, 2016.
She said she read the message that said, "Cuban, American, Mexican, pick one," while in front of her house that morning but didn't answer because she hadn't yet made up her mind.
In what is believed to be New Jersey's first texting-while-driving vehicular homicide trial, Mansonet told a jury she looked down to turn on her rear defogger while driving on Laurel Avenue in Hazlet, just before getting into an accident that killed a pedestrian.
[ Get the latest in NJ court news by downloading the Asbury Park Press app today. ]
"I wanted to turn on the defogger," Mansonet, 50, of Keansburg, said at her trial before Superior Court Judge David F. Bauman. "I looked down to turn on the defogger. I looked up and the car was right in front of me, and I hit the car."
At that point, Mansonet, chief executive officer at a nonprofit agency in Perth Amboy, started to cry on the witness stand.
Possible outcome:NJ first texting-and-driving trial could send Keansburg woman to prison for years
Being questioned by defense attorney Steven D. Altman, she said her airbags deployed, and her 2000 Mercedes Benz came to a stop.
A man came over to her and asked if she was okay, and she told him she was, Mansonet told the jury. Then she said she asked the man about the people in the car she hit.
"He said they looked fine," Mansonet said.
Only when a police officer arrived did she hear any mention of an ambulance and learned that a pedestrian had been struck, she said.
More from this case:Victim's head hit the ground 'like a basketball'
When she asked the officer if the pedestrian's injuries were serious, he told her, "I suggest that you pray," Mansonet said.
With that, Mansonet put her hands over her mouth and sobbed on the witness stand.
Yuwen Wang, 39, of Hazlet, died five days after being struck at Laurel Avenue and Sixth Street in Keansburg.
Mansonet answered a detective's questions about the accident that day, and was summoned to be questioned again at a later date. That's when a detective told her he knew that she had responded to the text message her former sister-in-law, Denise, sent her the morning of accident, she testified.
Earlier:Driver's head was 'straight down' when she crashed into car
Mansonet said she answered the detective incredulously.
"I said, 'I responded? I didn't respond to Denise,'" she said she told the detective.
"I remember just being surprised," she said. 'I did not respond to Denise."
Hazlet Detective Ryan McAndrews testified last week that the text message from Denise had been read about a minute before the crash.
Other prosecution witnesses testified last week that the driver of a red Toyota Corolla slowed down and stopped for Wang, who was on foot in the crosswalk on Laurel Avenue and Sixth Street in Hazlet, and that Mansonet's Mercedes rear-ended the Toyota and propelled it into the pedestrian.
Witnesses said Wang, who was on a break from her job at the nearby International Flavors and Fragrances factory, bounced off the Toyota's windshield and went airborne before her head bounced off the pavement.
Mansonet testified Monday that she used her phone after the accident to call her husband and send text messages to her coworkers to tell them she would be late. But she insisted she wasn't using the phone at the time of the crash. And, she said has no memory of ever responding to Denise's text about the dinner plans.
"I like Mexican, but I knew I wasn't sure what I wanted," Mansonet testified.
"Do you have a memory as to where you were when you looked at that message — Cuban, American, Mexican?" the defense attorney asked.
"I was in the car, in front of the house," she said.
"Did you ever see a car in front of you with brake lights on before you hit it?" Altman asked the defendant.
"No," Mansonet said. "I remember holding onto the steering wheel. I remember slamming on my brakes, the car moving ahead. I remember the airbag deploying. I remember powder, glass and then the vehicle stopped."
Christopher Decker, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, confronted Mansonet about the letters "M" and "e" that were typed in her phone in response to Denise's message but never sent. Mansonet repeatedly said she had no memory of typing those letters.
At the onset of her testimony, Mansonet told the jury she has worked 20 years for Jewish Renaissance Foundation, a nonprofit agency that provides social services and operates a food pantry and health centers for the homeless.
Before she took the witness stand, Altman called five witnesses to testify about Mansonet's character. They included a state trooper and a former mayor, who described her as a caring person, heavily involved in her church and helping others.
"She's played a very significant role in my life," Reinaldo Cruz Jr. of Elizabeth, a state trooper, said of Mansonet. "She was my youth facilitator at Our Lady of Fatima Church (in Perth Amboy). ... She's positively affected well over 50,000 people in Perth Amboy."
Antonia Ricigliano, a former mayor of Edison, said she knows Mansonet because she serves on the Jewish Renassance Foundation's board of directors.
"She's just a very good person," Ricigliano said. "She's very helpful. She cares about people. She has initiated many programs."
Jorge Cruz of North Brunswick, a longtime friend and co-worker of Mansonet, said of her, "I think she's one of the most honorable persons I know."
The defense rested its case after Mansonet's testimony. Summations are expected Tuesday.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues, unsolved mysteries and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com; 732-643-4202.