6 Years In Prison For South River Woman Who Killed Man In DUI

SOUTH RIVER, NJ — A South River woman was sentenced Tuesday to serve six years in a New Jersey state prison for killing a 49-year old man from North Brunswick, who she hit while driving while intoxicated.

Phyllis Kocheran, 52, of South River, must serve 85 percent of her six-year prison term before becoming eligible for parole. Kocheran’s license is also suspended for five years after she is released from prison.

Kocheran was sentenced after she pleaded guilty on August 7 to second-degree vehicular homicide and driving while intoxicated for striking and causing the death of William Oross on May 3. In pleading guilty, she admitted she was intoxicated when she was driving her 2011 Jeep Wrangler on Pulawski Avenue at 11:17 in the morning that day. She hit Oross. He was picking up recycling for Solterra recycling company when he was hit.

Oross was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead from the blunt force injuries he sustained from being hit by Kocheran’s Jeep.

Oross, known as "Wild Bill" to his friends and family, was remembered in a loving obituary as an avid fisherman who lived life by a unique motto: "Loved by few, hated by many, respected by all." Oross lived much of his life in Spotswood before recently moving to North Brunswick.

Photo of victim William Oross used with permission from Brunswick Memorial Home.