A New Jersey man charged with hiring two teens last year to steal a Jeep involved in a Princeton crash that left two people dead, including one of the teens, was arrested last week, police announced Tuesday.
Elhajjmalik Diallo, 19, of Newark is charged with employing a juvenile to commit a criminal offense, burglary and theft, according to a statement from the Princeton Police Department.
The fatal crash occurred on Nov. 7, 2021. Police were alerted at 12:40 p.m. of an attempted theft of a vehicle parked in a driveway on the 100 block of Clover Lane, police said. The resident reported seeing three people flee in a Jeep Grand Cherokee after trying to steal a car.
The Jeep was spotted a few minutes later heading west on Clover Lane followed by a Land Rover that had just been stolen from a residence on Dodds Lane, police said. The officer investigating the initial attempted theft began following the Land Rover while the Grand Cherokee fled in another direction.
“The Range Rover suddenly accelerated at a high rate of speed and the officer attempted to conduct a motor vehicle stop,” the department said in an earlier statement. “A motor vehicle pursuit ensued but was terminated on Snowden Lane due to the reckless driving of the Range Rover.”
The Range Rover was later found abandoned in Newark.
At 1:09 p.m., police received a report of a crash on Princeton-Kingston Road in the area of Carnegie Drive involving the Grand Cherokee, which had previously been reported stolen from Pequannock, authorities said.
The Jeep was headed east on Princeton-Kingston Road when its 15-year-old driver, Damajia Jenay “Majia” Horner, of Newark, crossed over the double yellow line and struck a westbound vehicle driven by Jodi Marcou, 61, of the Kendall Park section of South Brunswick, the department said.
Horner and Marcou were pronounced dead at the scene.
Marcou worked as a development specialist for the Rutgers University’s School of Information and Communication.
The 14-year-old passenger in the stolen Jeep, an unidentified Newark teen, was taken to a hospital in critical condition, but survived, officials said.
Detectives later learned that Diallo had hired the teens to steal cars in the Princeton area and also discovered that he had stolen the Land Rover officers also pursued, police said Friday. Diallo was charged in March and arrested on May 16 by members of the U.S. Marshals Service and New Jersey State Police, officials said.
He was being held in the Ocean County Jail on the charges stemming from the Princeton Police Department as well as numerous charges from other towns including East Windsor and Paramus, according to court records.
Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
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