'They're Not For Us. Go Go Go': Fatal Route 37 Crash Trip 'Filmed For Clout', Prosecutor Says

TOMS RIVER, NJ — As a white 2014 BMW speeds along Route 35 and Route 37 late on the evening of March 7, a young man’s voice can be heard on a video taken inside the car, capturing the high-speed trip.

“There’s spike strips,” the voice says, then after a pause, “They’re not for us.”

“GO! GO! GO!” a voice shouts.

That video, one of multiple videos presented during the detention hearing for Carlos D. Martinez on Thursday in Ocean County Superior Court, captured what prosecutors say is the reckless behavior of Martinez and friends Ryan Rivera and Jake M. Beauchamp leading up to the crash on Route 37 that killed Evan Fiore, 23, and Kiley Armstrong, 21.

“The car was moving like a rocket through the intersection,” Superior Court Judge Kenneth D. Palmer said Thursday as he ordered Martinez, 18, held until trial in the crash that also severely injured Kiley’s twin sister, Krista, and Krista’s boyfriend, Ryan Chapman, 19.

Other videos shown during the detention hearing and included in the evidence presented Thursday captured the three as the BMW sped off from the first encounter with Toms River police, at 10:42 p.m. on March 7 until the crashed at 10:58 p.m., shouts of “F— the police” and, at another point, “They’re so slow” heard on the audio, with prosecutors saying they were clearly mocking law enforcement.

The videos were taken by Rivera as he sat in the back seat of the BMW, according to the probable cause affidavits filed Tuesday when Rivera, 18, and Beauchamp, 20, were charged. He then shared the videos in a large Snapchat group as the three kept speeding along in the BMW, which had been modified to exceed 120 mph, according to the affidavits.

The charges against Rivera and Beauchamp were revealed Thursday during the detention hearing for Martinez. Juvenile charges against Martinez were upgraded to adult charges on June 25, and his case moved to adult court with his consent on June 28.

“The purpose was to film it and post it in their 28-person snapchat group for clout,” Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Travis Clark said Thursday during the detention hearing. The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office is handling the case because the Armstrong sisters are related to a high-ranking member of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

Clark said the Armstrong sisters, Fiore and Chapman, who were returning from a New Jersey Devils game in Newark and were crossing Route 37 on Route 166 when the BMW blew through the intersection and hit them, were the unfortunate ones to cross the path of the trio in the BMW, but there were other vehicles the BMW nearly hit, including another Toms River police vehicle, as they sped along reaching speeds of 130 mph, according to videos presented at the hearing.

Rivera and Beauchamp are being held in the Ocean County Jail pending detention hearings anticipated to be held next week. Both are charged with two counts of aggravated manslaughter, two counts of vehicular homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated assault causing bodily injury with fleeing, eluding, hindering prosecution — suppressing evidence, and obstruction, according to the Ocean County Corrections website.

What wasn’t heard in any videos, Clark said, was anyone telling Martinez to slow down or stop — which Rivera and Beauchamp had told investigators they had said at points during the 16-minute trip.

More telling, Clark said, was the stop the trio made about five minutes into the trip. According to the affidavits and information presented in court, Beauchamp’s phone location was idle for about two minutes near Sunset Lane in Brick Township. It then resumed travel, going south on Route 35.

It was during those two minutes, authorities say, that Beauchamp, Rivera and Martinez removed the car’s license plate and changed drivers from Beauchamp to Martinez.

Beauchamp had been seen on surveillance video driving the BMW as it left the parking lot at ShopRite on Fischer Boulevard, the affidavit said. Authorities say he was behind the wheel when the car sped past Toms River Patrol Officer John Marsicano, in part based on messages from Rivera to a woman where Rivera said “J ran cop def got the plate,” Clark said.

The removal of the rear license plate, which Marsicano had indeed seen and reported a partial plate number during his initial pursuit of the car, and turning off its lights were deliberate acts, Palmer said in his ruling, “as a way to evade prosecution or apprehension.”

Carlos Diaz-Cobo, the attorney for Martinez, argued at the hearing that there is doubt that Martinez was driving at the time of the crash. Videos presented by Clark included the dashcam video from a Toms River police vehicle showing the driver getting out of the BMW moments after the crash, with the Camry on its side, smoke rising, nearby. Clark said bodycam footage from one of the officers at the scene includes Martinez saying “this is on me,” Clark said.

Diaz-Cobo tried to separate Martinez, who was 17 at the time of the crash and initially was charged as a juvenile, from the actions of Rivera and Beauchamp, criticizing Clark’s statements referring to all three men as responsible for what happened.

“When the state says ‘they, they, they,’ they want to say they collectively,” Diaz-Cobo said. “I didn’t hear my client saying anything on those videos.”

Palmer addressed that in his ruling, saying it was impossible to tell whose voice is whose and who is or is not speaking on the videos. What was clear, he said, was none of them said slow down and none said they were scared.

“It is they who decided to thrill-seek,” the judge said.

Previous coverage:

• 2 Die In Route 37 Crash In Toms River As Unlicensed Teen Drove 118 MPH: Prosecutor
• Support Pours In For Families Of Victims In Fatal Route 37 Crash In Toms River
• 'Always Together': Route 37 Crash Victims Were Planning Futures, Families Say
• Funeral Set For 'Inseparable' Couple Killed In Route 37 Crash In Toms River
• Community Envelopes Families Of Couple Killed In Route 37 Crash
• Teen Driver To Be Tried As Adult In Route 37 Crash That Killed Couple: Report
• Driver In Fatal Route 37 Crash In Toms River Was Urged To Stop, Passenger Claims
• 3 Now Charged In Fatal 118-MPH Route 37 Crash In Toms River