State Briefly
Crash kills off-duty New Jersey police officer
LINDEN >> An off-duty police officer has been killed in a crash on Route 1 in Linden.
The crash occurred in the northbound lanes at about 2:15 a.m. Monday when the officer’s car collided with a tractortrailer.
Another person in the car suffered serious injuries and was taken to a hospital. The truck driver wasn’t injured.
The accident closed Route 1 for several hours.
WCBS reports the officer has been identified as Hillside Officer Giovanni Esposito, who was hired last November.
Hillside Police Chief Vincent Ricciardi said in a statement that Esposito graduated at the top of his class from the Essex County Police Academy.
NJ Governor Murphy leaving on trip to Germany, Israel
TRENTON >> Phil Murphy is about to leave on his first overseas trip as governor of New Jersey.
The freshman Democratic governor and first lady Tammy Murphy are leaving Monday for an “economic mission” in Germany and Israel.
Murphy served as U.S. ambassador to Germany under Barack Obama before being elected governor in November.
Murphy said Monday that taxpayers are not paying for the trip. An economic development organization funded by private industry called Choose NJ is financing the trip.
He returns to New Jersey on Oct. 24.
While he’s out of the state Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver will serve as acting governor.
Man who killed girlfriend, abducted daughter gets 75 years
ELIZABETH >> A man convicted of killing his girlfriend before fleeing to North Carolina with their infant has been sentenced to 75 years in prison.
Arturo Alomas will have to serve a minimum of 85 percent of his sentence.
The 35-year-old Alomas was convicted in August of killing 26-year-old Trenice Johnson in her apartment in Elizabeth on Easter Sunday 2016.
The Union County prosecutor’s office and Elizabeth police along with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol teamed up to apprehend Alomas in North Carolina, where he has family.
The couple’s infant daughter was with Alomas and was unharmed.
Authorities said Johnson was murdered as she returned from celebrating her birthday.
She was found choked to death with a plastic bag over her head and her arms and legs bound with duct tape.
Police: 20-year-old dead in crash at NJ WWI monument
CRESSKILL >> Police say a 20-year-old died after crashing into a New Jersey World War I monument at high speeds.
Cresskill police say Christian Gloria was driving early Saturday morning when he crashed into part of the Camp Merritt Memorial Monument. Authorities say Gloria was the only person in the car and no other vehicles were involved.
Authorities say “the cause and mitigating circumstances are still under investigation.”
The monument features a large obelisk, designed after the Washington Monument, and its inscription lists 578 people who died from the 1918 influenza epidemic at the military base Camp Merritt.