Middletown woman indicted for teen’s highway death

The Middletown woman accused of running down an Atlantic Highlands teen with her car and leaving her to die last July appears headed for trial.

A Monmouth County grand jury in Freehold returned a four-count indictment against Toni Marletta, 50, of the Leonardo section of town, according to the office of acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni.

She faces a second-degree charge of knowingly leaving the scene of an accident resulting in a fatality, one second-degree child-endangerment count, and two child-endangerment counts in the third degree.

Convictions for each second-degree charge carry possible 10-year prison terms. Convictions for third-degree offenses could mean incarceration for three to five years.

Middletown police were summoned to Route 36 at about 8:24 PM on July 7, 2015. Investigators from the township and the county concluded that Marissa Procopio, 15 was crossing the highway near Avenue D when she was struck. They determined that Marletta's vehicle contained three 16-year-old girls.

The teenager died the next day, during hospitalization at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.

Officers who found Marletta's car later in the evening said that damage on it corresponded with the collision. She was charged on July 15, and held on $150,000 full bail in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution until August 4, when she met terms of reduced bail. She was also ticketed for driving infractions.

Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Meghan Doyle has been appointed to argue the state's case. Marletta is represented by Peter M. O'Mara, Esq., of Little Silver.