The driver from southern Ocean County who admitted hitting a pedestrian and driving on after the victim crashed through the car's windsheild can expect to spend up to seven years in prison.

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Marcos A. Ortega, 34, of Little Egg Harbor was also sentenced to three years of parole supervision for his guilty plea to a second-degree count of vehicular homicide, according to information from the office of Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato.

Kenneth Moeller, 61, of Lanoka Harbor, lingered for a week before dying at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune following the November 10, 2014 incident in Waretown.

Investigators that evening determined that the car was moving northbound on Route 9, then veered onto the shoulder near South Main Street and impacted Moeller, who was walking on the roadside.

Moeller was catapulted through the windshield, and hung suspended while the car continued for another mile and a half, authorities said.

Ocean Township Patrolman Kyle Flatt, alerted at about 6:39 PM of an erratic driver on the state road, caught sight of the car in motion about five minutes later, with what he thought was a passenger lying on the hood. He stopped the car at the intersection of Dolphin Way and discovered Moeller hanging helplessly.

Ortega failed a field sobriety test, at which point police secured a telephonic search warrant for blood samples that were later analyzed, authorities said.

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