ST. GEORGE — A former New Jersey police officer who killed a fellow officer and his friend in a drunken wrong-way crash on the West Shore Expressway said the victim's "should've taken an Uber home."
During a rambling statement to the court at his sentencing, Pedro Abad apologized to the victim's families for the crash but said he doesn't remember forcing them into his car that night.
"They should've taken an Uber home," Pedro Abad said in court Wednesday. "They chose to get in my car."
Abad, who was fired as a Linden police officer after the crash, said his victims are now happy in heaven and asked Judge Mario Mattei for merely probation or no more than a year in prison to see all the "good" he can do.
"You are all about you," Mattei told Abad, calling the former officer selfish and unremorseful before sentencing him to the maximum eight and one-third to 25 years behind bars. "You were a time bomb waiting to explode."
One victim's family called Abad's statement "ridiculous" and another told Abad at the hearing that she hopes he dies in prison.
"That's not right what he said," said Roseann Rodriguez, Joseph Rodriguez's sister. "It's horrible, but justice was served and he got what he deserved."
Abad, 29, was found guilty by a jury last month of vehicular manslaughter for his role in the alcohol-fueled car crash that killed Rodriguez, 28, and fellow Linden police officer Frank Viggiano, 28, and injured two others in 2015.
While off-duty, Abad went to the Central Park bar in Rosedale, New Jersey, on March 19, 2015 with Linden police officer Patrick Kudlac and another friend. The group later met with Viggiano and Rodriguez then headed to Curve's Gentleman's Club at 2945 Arthur Kill Road.
On the way back to Jersey, Abad got onto the West Shore Expressway the wrong way near the Arden Avenue exit and sped down the highway until he slammed head-on into a tractor trailer without braking, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez and Viggiano died in the crash, while Kudlac, Abad and the driver of the truck were left injured.
A blood sample revealed that Abad has a .24 percent blood-alcohol content after the crash, three times the legal limit of .08 percent.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Palladino said Abad had two prior DWIs before the fatal crash and started off his passionate statement to the judge by calling Abad a "narcissistic, self-centered, reckless criminal."
"You are no hero, you are no inspiration," Palladino said. "You're a guy who got drunk at a strip club and killed two people."
In her tearful statement, Roseann Rodriguez said she's suffered from depression, complicated grief and survivor's guilt since her brother's death. She told Abad — who quoted Bible verses in court — she hates him and he was "going straight to hell."
"I will never forgive you, you killed my brother," she said in court. "It's time for your life to be destroyed now."
After sitting through statements from both his victim's sisters, Abad gave a long one of his own that touched upon his religion, hair and beard choices during the trial and his hope that reciting Bible verses to cameras outside court would help people.
"God saved me," Abad said.
He started off commending prosecutors for their work during the trial and thanking the media for covering the case for nearly 10 minutes before finally apologizing to family members.
"It bothers me every single day that any of this happened, it shouldn't have happened," Abad said in court. "I don't know [the victims] entirely, but I know that they did not deserve this."
Abad said he refused to take a plea deal in the case because he couldn't remember anything that happened the night of the crash and felt like he was a member of the jury during the trial.
During the statement — which his lawyer said his client worked on for two weeks — Abad told the family that he prays to Viggiano and Rodriguez daily and knew they were with God now.
"Literally right now, they're up above us with God and they love you and they actually are happy," Abad said.
Abad was given the maximum sentences for all his charges — aggravated vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and aggravated vehicular assault — to run concurrent with each other. He also faces three years probation after his release.
"This sentence ensures Mr. Abad is held accountable for the lives he destroyed when he decided to get behind the wheel and drive drunk," District Attorney Michael McMahon said in a statement.
"My thoughts and prayers remain with the families and friends of all the victims affected by this tragedy."
