Kaylah Smith stands in the courthouse with her son's ashes.
Edward Johnston appears in court.Kaylah Smith could no longer keep quiet.
“Are you ever going to say you’re sorry?” she asked as she walked behind the man who fatally struck her son as he slept in the back of his father’s parked car. “You don’t even feel bad that you took an 8-year-old’s life.”
Edward Johnston had just appeared in court again on the aggravated manslaughter charge he faces in the fatal crash that killed Smith’s son.
Javier Velez was curled up in the back seat of his father's car parked along Absecon Boulevard after a fishing trip July 23. His father and little brother were packed up at about 3:25 a.m., as Javi fell asleep.
That is when Johnston came around the curve along Absecon Boulevard and struck the vehicle, trapping the 8-year-old inside. He died at the scene.
The Egg Harbor City man had a blood-alcohol level more than 1½ times the legal limit and hit speeds of 107 mph, the state alleges.
He was charged three months after the crash and jailed. A judge’s decision to release him following a detention hearing was upheld by an appellate panel.
The move led Javi’s family to protest outside the courthouse, and enlist elected leaders to try to change how these cases are handled.
Smith also started an online petition to change the law.
Johnston was indicted by a grand jury in January.
But for now, the family is still waiting for movement in the case.
Family members make the trip from Philadelphia for every court appearance.The parents, their surviving son and several family members made the trip from Philadelphia to the courthouse in Mays Landing on Thursday, only to hear Johnston’s attorney ask for an eight-week postponement.
Voluminous discovery the prosecution recently sent to the defense was the reason.
Smith said it was all too much.
“Clearly today it showed how much we’re over our limit,” she said. “I’m glad he got to hear me call him a kid killer, because that’s what he is.”
The family is not the same without Javi, she said as he stood holding the box that contains her older son's ashes.
Her home is quieter. Her younger son, Jerry, hardly leaves his brother’s room, “watching Javi’s favorite shows, playing with his toys.”
It’s bittersweet to hear the same songs and shows coming out of Javi’s room.
“I feel like he’s in the room,” she said. “But then I look in and Jerry’s there playing by himself. It’s a heartbreak.”
