02/17/04 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom Man loses 2nd appeal in '95 killing
By Peggy Wright, Daily Record
A state appeals court ruled for a second time Tuesday that Michael Homentosky will not receive a new trial or a reduction of his 30-year sentence for his 1995 drunken-driving killing of a mother of three in Randolph.
The judge who presided over Homentosky's trial in Morris County in 1996 should not have allowed his license suspension to be admitted at trial as proof of recklessness, but this evidence offering was "harmless error" in light of other overwhelming proof of the driver's recklessness, the appeals court wrote.
The court noted that convictions are overturned and new trials ordered when a trial error is "sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt" as to whether a jury might have reached a different verdict if certain evidence was suppressed. In the case of the now-45-year-old Homentosky, at least five witnesses observed him speeding and lane-hopping seconds before he ran a red light on Feb. 22, 1995, at Dover-Chester Road and Route 10.
Homentosky, in a vehicle borrowed from his employer, struck at close to 80 miles per hour a Jeep Cherokee driven by Teresa Wright, who had her three children on board. Wright, 39, suffered severe injuries and died three days later. Her two daughters and son, pulled from the burning vehicle, survived the crash.
A jury heard that Homentosky's blood-alcohol level at the time was about .21 percent, or double the .10 percent limit at which a person then was considered legally intoxicated in New Jersey. Jurors also heard from multiple witnesses about his erratic driving and that Homentosky's license had been suspended for failure to pay a parking fine in Atlantic City.
Homentosky was found guilty at a 1996 trial of aggravated manslaughter, death by auto, and disorderly persons offenses of simple assault and assault by auto. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 15 years of parole ineligibility. According to state records, Homentosky will first be eligible for parole from state prison on Feb. 28, 2010.
His multiple appeals for a new trial or reduction of sentence have all been denied, first by the appellate division in 1999, next by the trial judge in 2002, and again Tuesday by the appellate division. He went to the trial court for so-called "post-conviction" relief in 2002 after the first appeals court denial and then the refusal of the state Supreme Court to hear his case.
Teresa Wright's death inspired her husband, William, to push for stronger penalties for drunken drivers who kill others. The husband later was struck and killed in 1997 while jogging near the site where his wife was hit, by a motorist who was not intoxicated but did not see Wright on his pre-dawn run. The Wright's three children now are being raised by family friends in Ohio.
