Sussex County Man Pleads Guilty, Killed 3 In Drug-Induced Crash

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ — A man from the Glenwood-section of Vernon could be sentenced up to 30 years in prison after he recently pleaded guilty to a Wayne crash that killed three people in 2019.

Jason Vanderee, now 32, pleaded guilty to three manslaughter counts in Passaic County Superior Court, as well as driving under the influence after he lost consciousness and killed father and son Jon and Luke Warbeck as they sat in their parked car at the Delta Gas Station on 1220 Route 23 North, as well as hitting gas station attendant Lovedeep Fatra, 22 of Pequannock, who also died.

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Vanderee will be eligible for parole once his sentence is 85 percent completed if the state accepts the recommended sentencing, with 15 years of parole supervision after he is released.

According to NorthJersey.com, Vanderee admitted under oath this past Friday that on the day of the crash, Feb. 19, 2019, he bought heroin in Paterson, took it and then drove under the influence on Route 23 North in Wayne, before his car wandered into the gas station. In addition to admitting he had taken heroin and fentanyl before getting behind the wheel of his car, Vanderee told the judge that he had abused heroin, with alprazolam and cocaine additionally detected in his system, according to toxicology reports.

Vanderee later admitted that he did not remember the crash, as his car flew into the gas station and flipped over another car after hitting the Warbecks’ vehicle, a Chevrolet Camaro, the impact so severe it tore off the roof.

It wasn’t Vanderee’s first time that he had driven impaired, with a conviction in November 2016, with police reviving him with Narcan.

Jon Warbeck was 50 and a Fair Lawn resident who owned his own construction business, his son Luke, 17, of Lincoln Park, a student at Boonton High School who loved woodshop class, father and son described as “inseparable.” Fatra, who had immigrated from India and was supporting his family, planned to leave his job at the gas station, had he survived, to become a truck driver, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser that his family established.

Read more here on NorthJersey.com

Reporting contributed by Josh Bakan and Daniel Hubbard

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.