Man Was Drunk In Crash That Killed Freehold Nursing Assistant, Prosecutor Says

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The driver of a car that killed a certified nursing assistant from Freehold in March was intoxicated at the time of the head-on crash, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday.

Daniel T. Cormier, 31, has been charged with vehicular homicide and strict liability vehicular homicide in the March 7 crash that killed Shamirah Nolan, 37, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Nolan, a mother of three and a certified nursing assistant, was driving north on Route 9 on her way to work at Complete Care of Bey Lea in Toms River when her Honda Accord was hit head-on by Cormier just after 11 p.m., authorities said.

Cormier had been driving south on Route 9 when his Volkswagen Jetta veered off the road, hit a guardrail and then hit Nolan's Honda near Whitty Road, authorities said.

Nolan was taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River, where she was pronounced dead, the prosecutor's office said.

Family members who identified Nolan to news media in the days after the crash, had expressed frustration that the prosecutor's office had not released more information about the crash, including the names of both Nolan and Cormier. Cormier had been suspected by police of driving intoxicated, authorities said at the time.

“We very much want to advocate not only for her, but other families so that they don’t have to go through what we’ve been going through in terms of losing a family member very tragically, very unexpectedly due to a preventable cause,” Nolan's cousin, Kayla Crooms, told the Asbury Park Press.

Cormier was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune with non-life-threatening injuries, and his blood was drawn under a search warrant. Cormier later was released from the hospital, authorities said.

Lab results received by the prosecutor's office on Monday showed his blood alcohol concentration was 0.09 percent, authorities said.

The tests also showed Cormier had gabapentin and hydrocodone in his system, "rendering him unfit to operate a motor vehicle," the prosecutor's office said.

Cormier surrendered himself to Toms River Police Headquarters on Monday and he was taken to the Ocean County Jail, where he is being held pending a detention hearing.