Eric Maltz, 21, was recklessly driving a BMW at a high speed on Riverside Drive on March 28 when he crashed into a parked Toyota Camry that then hit a Toyota Prius.
PRINCETON — A Princeton man was indicted Wednesday on charges of aggravated manslaughter and death by auto in a March crash that killed a retired Princeton University rabbi, officials said today.
Eric Maltz, 21, was recklessly driving a BMW at a high speed on Riverside Drive on March 28 when he crashed into a parked Toyota Camry that then hit a Toyota Prius, killing 74-year-old Rabbi James Diamond, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said.
With the high speed and the force of the collision, the BMW apparently pushed the unoccupied Camry about 500 feet down the road before hitting the Prius, police said at the time.
The BMW and Camry remained connected, nose to nose, where they came to rest, and the Prius was pushed down the road, across the street and backward into a tree, according to police reports and accident photos.
Diamond was struck and thrown away from the Prius and was found unresponsive on the ground by emergency personnel, who were not able to save him and pronounced him dead at the scene, police said.
Rabbi Robert Freedman, 64, who was in the driver’s seat of the Prius, was seriously injured.
In addition to aggravated manslaughter and death by auto, Maltz was also indicted on an assault by auto charge. He is free on $100,000 bail, the prosecutor’s office said
Maltz is scheduled to appear in court in November, said Casey DeBlasio, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office. If convicted of the first-degree offense he could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in state prison, the office said.
Maltz has a history of mental health issues and was taken to a psychiatric hospital after the crash, police said in April.
Maltz encountered police one week before the accident when his father called to report that Maltz was “acting out” and throwing things around the house, according to a police report.
When police arrived, Maltz told them that he took the drug Lamictal for mood stabilization and Zoloft for depression, police said. He also told them that in September 2012 he had tried to hurt himself with a knife, but at the time of their visit did not want to hurt himself or others, the report said.
His father, Gary Maltz, told police that his son had not threatened to harm him and they had not had a physical fight, the report said. The report said the elder Maltz wanted his son taken to University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro for mental health treatment and did not want the incident pursued criminally. Maltz was taken to the hospital by the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad without incident.
The prosecutor’s office could not provide any additional information on Maltz’s mental state, DeBlasio said.
Contact Brendan McGrath at (609) 989-5731 or bmcgrath@njtimes.com.
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