Brick Woman Sentenced to Six Years for Pedestrian's Death

A Brick woman who had been charged in the Nov. 2009 death of a pedestrian in Toms River's Ocean Beach section has pleaded guilty to a vehicular homicide charge and will spend the next several years behind bars.

Crystal Vallee, now 28, fatally struck Mark Infante, 54, of West Orange, while driving on Route 35 South the afternoon of Nov. 27, 2009. Vallee was charged with vehicular homicide after authorities accused her of having used cocaine before she drove.

Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Steven N. Cucci, who handled the case, said Vallee struck a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to the vehicular homicide charge. A number of other lesser charges, including a 2011 prostitution charge, were dismissed, he said.

Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels sentenced Vallee to six years in state prison Aug. 31. By that time, she had already served over a year in jail since her June 2011 arrest on the prostitution charge in Seaside Heights. According to state prison records, Vallee will be eligible for parole Feb. 16, 2016. She must serve 85 percent of her sentence before being paroled, Cucci said.

Recently, Vallee – whose last known address before going to jail was on West Princeton Avenue in Brick – was transferred from the Ocean County Jail to the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton to serve her sentence, records show.

A report in the Asbury Park Press at the time of the accident in 2009 said Infante, an attorney who was slated to become a state administrative law judge, was walking from his vacation home in Ocean Beach to a local post office when he was hit by Vallee's vehicle from behind.

Vallee's attorney, James Butler, Jr. of Asbury Park, confirmed the sentence had been rendered but did not wish to comment on the case.