Witness Joseph Conte told jurors in Jennifer Nelson's attempted-murder trial he followed a vehicle that struck a teen and tracked down license plate for the police
Jennifer Nelson, left, who is charged with attemped murder for running down a teen she believed was bullying her son, arrives at the Riverhead criminal court building on Tuesday. Credit: Tom Lambui
A Shirley man followed an SUV that allegedly ran over a William Floyd High School student last Oct. 7, tracked down a license plate number and turned it over to police, he told the jury at the attempted-murder trial of the woman accused of striking the teen because she believed he had attacked her son.
Joseph Conte said he saw a pack of teens running across Mastic Road at 9:35 a.m., moments before the teen was struck in a bagel shop parking lot.
“[The vehicle] accelerated, not decelerated, and hit a kid up on the curb, which really pissed me off, because it’s a kid,” Conte said on the fifth day of the trial.
Prosecutors have alleged Jennifer Nelson, 36, of Shirley struck 15-year-old Jonathan Gamez because she believed he was among a group of teens who earlier that morning attacked her son and stole his Adidas Ye Slides, a popular footwear.
WHAT TO KNOW
- A Shirley man followed an SUV that allegedly ran over a William Floyd High School student last Oct. 7, tracked down a license plate number and turned it over to police, he told the jury at the attempted murder trial of the woman accused of striking the teen because she believed he had attacked her son.
- Joseph Conte said he saw a pack of teens running across Mastic Road at 9:35 a.m., moments before the teen was struck in a bagel shop parking lot.
- Prosecutors have alleged Jennifer Nelson, 36, of Shirley struck 15-year-old Jonathan Gamez because she believed he was among a group of teens who earlier that morning attacked her son and stole his Adidas Ye Slides, a popular footwear.
Prosecutors showed the jury for the first time two pieces of evidence Conte said he turned over to police. The first was a cellphone recording of him repeating a license plate number as he said he tailed Nelson for nearly a quarter-mile after the crash. The second was an image he took of a cellphone photograph another witness snapped of the license plate on the car involved in the crash. The two license plate numbers were nearly identical, with two numbers inversed.
Conte’s testimony, however, led to several tense moments in the courtroom as the jury was asked to leave twice and, at one point, the defense motioned for a mistrial, which was denied by State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei.
A 48-year-old LIRR worker, Conte pointed at Nelson when he was asked to describe the woman he saw driving the vehicle that morning.
“Her,” he said.
Defense attorney Katherine Fernandez alleged that Conte was likely coached by prosecutors to point at her client, saying he never previously disclosed he could directly identify the driver. Fernandez told Mazzei that Conte previously described the woman behind the wheel as dark-skinned, which she said does not fit Nelson.
“For the first time today in court you just decide to say she looks like her?” Fernandez asked Conte.
Later while answering questions from Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Veronica McMahon, Conte looked at Fernandez and asked, “Are we having a stare-down?” The comments, and another instance when he told the defense attorney her question was “immaterial” earned Conte reprimands from Mazzei.
Fernandez focused on what she perceived as inconsistencies in Conte’s testimony Tuesday and other statements to police since Oct. 7, 2022. In addition to the inverse numbers and his description of Nelson, she noted how in separate statements to investigators Conte changed the color of the car that hit the teen, at first calling it a burgundy/purple Honda and later saying it was silver. She alleged he changed his story of what he saw after talking with other witnesses at the scene.
Conte said his focus that day was on helping to catch the person he saw drive over the teen.
“I like to be involved when people are running over kids in my neighborhood,” he told the court.
William Floyd High School assistant principal Lisa Pisano told the jury earlier Tuesday that she urged Nelson to call the police before the crash, after the mother visited the school about 9 a.m. Oct. 7 to report the attack on her son.
Pisano said the school was limited in how it could handle the situation because it occurred off school grounds.
"We don't police what goes on in the community," Pisano said, adding that she still notified a member of the Suffolk Police Department who serves as a school resource officer about the attack.
Fernandez questioned if school security could have done more to mitigate the situation by preventing the students from leaving school grounds in the first place.
"We don't allow them to go, but we don't physically restrain them," Pisano said of students exiting the grounds for neighboring businesses during the school day.
Nelson is charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting serious injury, all felonies. Witness testimony is expected to continue Wednesday.
Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.
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