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Jason Vanderee, 32, of Vernon Township, apologized to the survivors during his sentencing in Superior Court in Paterson on Thursday, March 3. His mother also begged for leniency.
Superior Judge Marilyn C. Clark held fast to the terms of the plea deal, saying that she hoped it would “bring some degree of justice to the families who have suffered such grievous losses.”
Vanderee told Clark last November that he’d used heroin and fentanyl bought in Paterson in combination with other drugs when he blacked out behind the wheel on Feb. 19, 2019.
Jon Warbeck, a former Carlstadt firefighter from Fair Lawn and his 17-year-old son, Luke, of Lincoln Park, had stopped for gas at the Delta station on northbound Route 23 around 8:45 a.m. that day.
The attendant had just closed the gas cap of their Chevy Camaro convertible when a speeding Honda Pilot with an overdosed Vanderee behind the wheel literally flew into them and the attendant, Lovedeep Fatra, 23, of Pequannock.
All three were killed instantly.
Security video shows that, based on the speed and point of impact, they couldn't have suffered. In the footage, the airborne Honda Pilot is seen shearing the top of the convertible off from the bottom of the driver's side window and smashing squarely through the attendant.
Warbeck, whose 51st birthday was the very next day, had been with the Carlstadt Fire Department from 1993-2000.
His son attended Boonton High School and was about to take his driver's test, according to community members.
Vanderee had overdosed and had to be revived with Narcan before being taken to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, authorities said at the time.
Two other vehicles, a 2011 Nissan Rogue and a 2016 Ford Transit T-250 van, were also struck, they said. Occupants of both vehicles received medical treatment for minor injuries.
Besides heroin and fentanyl, a subsequent toxicology report “also showed the presence of alprazolam and cocaine” in Vanderee’s system, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes said.
Rather than risk a trial, Vanderee -- who has a long history of drug-related offenses -- took a deal from prosecutors. He pleaded guilty last Nov. 12 to three counts of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, in addition to a DUI traffic violation.
In exchange, he got a 30-year sentence, 85% of which he must serve before being eligible for parole under New Jersey’s No Early Release Act.
Clark gave him credit for nearly three years days’ worth of time he’s spent in jail since his arrest, which means he'll be eligible for parole in 2044 – or when he’s in his mid-50s.
That will be followed by a mandatory 15 years of parole supervision.
“I accept responsibility for what happened. I think about it every night,” Vanderee told the survivors on Thursday. “It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to my family. If I could, I would give my life a thousand times over to give them back."
“Heroin has taken everything from me,” he added. "Everything I ever loved. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I don’t forgive myself.”
In turn, Luke Warbeck’s mother, Gina called Vanderee a murderer and a thief who robbed her son “of an entire lifetime."
Of having children, she said: “Their joy is your joy. Their pain is your pain. And their death is your death....I don’t dream anymore. It feels surreal to wake up without him.”
Vanderee had not only ODs three previous times. Records show he’d also crashed while under the influence of drugs on Route 80 in Fairfield in 2016.
If he’d stuck with rehab instead of quitting a week before the fatal crash, the judge said, “he probably would not be here today.”
Instead, Vanderee drove to Paterson, bought heroin mixed with deadly fentanyl and immediately shot up instead of waiting until he was no longer behind the wheel, Assistant Passaic County Prosecutor Julie Serfess said.
"Gina Warbeck will continue to leave her bed in the middle of the night, go into Luke's room and hug the pillows she knitted from his clothing and cry," Serfess told the judge.
"The immense amount of people who have been affected, I can't even put into words," the prosecutor added. "No more huge bear hugs from Luke, no more raspy voice of Jon Warbeck, no more cups of coffee being drunk at the Delta gas station by [Fatra]."
Members of Fatra's family are in India and had to attend via Zoom. Serfess said they and the other survivors must “continue to try and pick up the pieces of the mess one person is responsible for.”
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