Man Serves 1 Year In Prison For Hitting NJ Woman, Killing Her, And Fleeing Scene

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A man who hit and killed a single mother from Woodbridge in August 2023 was released last week after serving one year in prison.

The man is Antonio Rivera, 24. In the early evening hours of Aug. 31, 2023, he struck Fords resident Kristen Bruschi, 45, as she walked across Woodbridge Center Drive in front of the Wegmans. Rivera fled the scene and later called Woodbridge Police to file a false report that his Mustang had been stolen (it was not stolen).

Last year, Rivera pled guilty to second-degree knowingly leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle crash and fourth-degree filing a false police report. Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Craig Corson sentenced him to five years in prison.

Rivera was admitted to a prison in South Jersey on June 3, 2024 and he was released on parole last Wednesday, July 2, according to New Jersey prison records.

Bruschi's family said they tried to appeal to the New Jersey Parole Board, and keep him in prison for longer than a year.

"We wrote letters to dispute it, but to no avail. He was paroled last week and no one called us to tell us he was out," said Bruschi's grieving sister, Carolina Bruschi. "We wrote letters to the New Jersey Dept. of Corrections Office of Victim Services and the New Jersey Parole Board. When I asked, they said he fell under one of the Governor's less serious crime parole bills."

In New Jersey, certain prison inmates are eligible for early parole release under the “Earn Your Way Out Act." Also, an inmate becomes eligible for parole once they serve one third of their sentence, if no mandatory minimum term has been imposed. And the crime for which Rivera was sentenced — leaving the scene of a fatal accident — is not subject to New Jersey's No Early Release Act.

"As Mr. Rivera’s sentence did not include a mandatory minimum term, he was eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence less commutation time and applicable credits," said Nicole Swiderski, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Parole Board. "Mr. Rivera met the criteria for administrative parole release and was released at the time of his primary parole eligibility on administrative parole on July 2, 2025."

Gov. Phil Murphy has made many changes to reduce mass incarceration in New Jersey: In June 2024, Murphy created a Clemency Advisory Board, the first in New Jersey state history. Since it was created, that board has received more than 2,200 applications from NJ prisoners for clemency. And during his eight years in office, Murphy reduced prison sentences or pardoned them entirely for 129 people, according to this April 2025 press release from the governor.

To Bruschi's family, justice has not been served.

"We thought it was a light sentence, and to only serve one year of that is an embarrassment to our justice system," her sister said this week. "It isn't something serious, I guess, to them."

"We are, quite frankly, disgusted by this sentence," Bruschi told Patch last year, when Rivera was sentenced. "We are devastated at what the courts issued. We feel our justice system failed us."

Bruschi said the Middlesex County Prosecutor initially told them Rivera would serve eight years, and those were the terms of the plea deal the prosecutor presented to him, which he accepted.

"We agreed on an eight-year plea deal, which he signed," she said.

However, Rivera's own testimony in front of the judge, plus comments from his mother and his employer, Scott's Towing in Woodbridge, were able to convince Judge Corson to reduce the prison term to five years for the crime of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and one year for filing a false report, to be served concurrently.

The night of the fatal hit and run on Woodbridge Center Drive

Kristen Bruschi went out to get groceries in the early evening of Aug. 31, 2023. Because it was a nice summer night, she decided to ride her bicycle to Wegmans.

At 5:39 p.m. Rivera hit Bruschi while she was walking her bike across busy Woodbridge Center Drive, on her way home with a bag of groceries hanging from the handlebars. It was people driving by who called 911 and police found Bruschi lying in the middle of the intersection, unconscious. She was bleeding from her head and elsewhere.

Police say Rivera immediately fled the scene. The posted speed limit is 25 miles per hour; it is unknown how fast he was going.

Hours after he hit Bruschi that evening, Rivera called Woodbridge Police to report that his black Mustang had been stolen. Unbeknownst to him, Woodbridge Police, led by Sergeant Joseph Angelo, had surveillance footage of the Mustang hitting Bruschi, and had just put out a BOLO (be on the lookout) for it to all surrounding towns.

Rivera was told to come to Woodbridge Police headquarters that night, where he admitted that his car was not in fact stolen. He told police he knew he hit a woman, but he "panicked and left the scene," according to the criminal complaint.

Rivera was arrested by Woodbridge Police the next day, Sept. 1, at his home on Fox Hill Run.

At the time of her death, Kristen lived in Fords with her mother, with whom she was very close, and was a single mom to a 15-year-old daughter.

"(He) took away a mom from a teenage girl when she needed her the most. We understand accidents do happen and people panic, but this was no sense of panic. His acts to flee, falsify police reports and then bury his crime shows his true character," Bruschi said.

'Justice System Failed Us:' Family Of Woodbridge Woman Killed In Hit-And-Run (June 2024)

Initial Patch report on the death of Kristen Bruschi: Woodbridge Single Mother Hit, Killed By Car Outside Wegmans