Crime & Safety
Men Charged In Rt. 1 DWI Crash That Killed Jamesburg Woman, 19
Two men were charged with DWI in the 4 a.m. crash on May 24 that took the life of a 19-year-old woman. She worked in East Brunswick.
NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — Two men have been charged with DWI in the May 24 crash on Rt. 1 that took the life of a 19-year-old young woman from Jamesburg.
The fatal three-car crash occurred at 4:11 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, May 24 on Rt. 1 south in North Brunswick (near the North Brunswick Walmart, the scene of several fatal accidents in the past.)
Rashawn Stevens, 33, of Newark and Garry Givens-Owens, 28, of Somerset were both charged with strict liability vehicular homicide in the third degree by driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and causing the death of another.
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According to the Middlesex County prosecutor, Stevens was driving his Lincoln Sedan southbound on Rt. 1 when he struck the car driven by the teenage girl. Givens-Owen was driving a BMW sedan, which first struck the Lincoln and then also hit the car driving by Eden.
Both men were driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, say police.
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Eden was pronounced deceased at the scene.
According to her obituary, she had been born in Perth Amboy and was currently enrolled in Lincoln Technical Institute in Woodbridge, where she was studying towards a career in geriatric nursing.
Eden worked as a dietary aide with Care One in East Brunswick.
"Felicity was a hard working, selfless, kind and caring person, (who) strived to achieve all of her goals and pushed others to achieve theirs," read her obituary.
That stretch of Rt. 1 by the North Brunswick Walmart has been the site of previous drunk driving fatal accidents: In 2019, a woman from Paterson was indicted after police say she was driving drunk and ran a red light just after midnight on September 22, 2018: Elizabeth Gomez, 42, ran a red light and hit and killed Wen-Fu Lin, 80, of East Brunswick, who was pulling out of the Walmart onto Rt. 1.
Lin was pronounced dead at the scene.
Stevens was arrested last week in Newark and Owens was taken into custody last Thursday in North Brunswick. They are both currently being held in the Middlesex County jail.
Related: Paterson Woman Indicted In North Brunswick Fatal DWI Crash
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