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Drunk Driver Going 114 MPH Sentenced For Garden State Parkway Crash That Killed Amazon Worker

A 47-year-old Newark man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Friday, July 19, for a deadly 2021 crash on the Garden State Parkway where he was driving intoxicated at 114 mph, authorities said.

Rolando Godwin

Rolando Godwin

Photo Credit: Union County Jail

On Feb. 15, 2021, Rolando Godwin was driving a Range Rover when he struck a Lexus SUV driven by Christopher Meikle, a 46-year-old East Orange resident, causing his car to be engulfed in flames on the Garden State Parkway in Clark, Union County Prosecutor William Daniel said.

Following the crash, Godwin requested he be transported away from the scene, indicating he was prepared to offer an unspecified reward in exchange, authorities said.

In January 2024, Godwin had pled guilty to aggravated manslaughter, authorities said. Along with his prison sentence, Godwin's driver's license will be suspended for eight years.

Meikle was born in Jamaica, where he worked at NCB Printery, at NMIA as an Airlift Handler, then launched out as a Bus Driver at JUTC, his obituary on the Perry Funeral Home website says.

In 2009, Meikle moved to the U.S. and lived in Florida before relocating to New Jersey in 2011. In the Garden State, Meikle worked for ShopRite and Amazon, where he had been working at the time of his death.

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