Family of Officer Killed in Crash Wins $10.1M Verdict

The family of an off-duty police officer killed in an alcohol-related crash as he headed home on Thanksgiving from a drunken-driving detail has won a $10.1 million verdict against the driver who hit him.

An Ocean County jury found that 36-year-old Erick Uzcategui was solely responsible for the 2010 death of Ocean Gate Officer Jason Marles. The panel cleared a bar where the Manchester Township man allegedly was drinking the night the crash occurred on a stretch of the Garden State Parkway in Toms River.

Lawyers for Marles' family tell the Asbury Park Press that the money from the civil lawsuit will be held in trust for his two young children. The verdict was announced Friday, culminating a trial that lasted eight days.

Uzcategui was convicted of vehicular homicide in 2014 and is serving an eight-year state prison sentence.