Drunk Driving, Vehicular Homicide Charges In Manchester ATV Crash

MANCHESTER, NJ — Authorities say a Howell Township man was driving drunk during an ATV crash the Heritage Minerals site that killed a man in December.

Stephen McGuire, 43, was charged Tuesday with vehicular homicide and other charges in connection with the Dec. 12 death of James Grover, 62, of Howell, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Grover died when the ATV he was a passenger on went into the lake at the site about 8:30 p.m. A group of people had been riding the vehicles in the Heritage Minerals site when one went into the lake, and while the driver and other passengers were able to get out, Grover did not resurface and the group was unable to find him, authorities said.

Manchester police and members of the Manchester, Ridgeway and Whiting Volunteer Fire Companies searched the lake and found the ATV overturned and submerged in 25 feet of water, with Grover attached to it by his safety harness, authorities said.

Grover was removed from his safety harness and Manchester Township Emergency Medical EMTs and Robert Wood Johnson paramedics performed life-saving attempts but Grover succumbed and was pronounced dead at the scene, they said.

Billhimer said investigators learned Grover and three children were passengers on the ATV, which was being driven by McGuire. McGuire was taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River and a search warrant obtained for a draw of his blood, he said.

The prosecutor's office received the lab results on Tuesday and they showed McGuire had a blood alcohol concentration of .127 percent, well in excess of the legal limit of .08 percent.

McGuire was arrested at his home and charged with vehicular homicide, strict liability vehicular homicide, criminal trespass and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, along with the motor vehicle offenses of driving while intoxicated, driving while intoxicated with a minor as a passenger, and reckless driving, Billhimer said.

He is being held at the Ocean County Jail, pending a detention hearing.

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