Guilty plea in 2016 boating hit-and-run

A man has pleaded guilty in connection with a hit-and-run boating collision on Greenwood Lake on Labor Day in 2016, Chief Assistant Passaic County Prosecutor Timothy Kerrigan said.

Shawn Kelly entered the guilt plea to a charge of third-degree leaving the scene of a boating accident involving serious bodily injury Feb. 21.

He is scheduled to be sentenced March 19.

In 2018, Kelly was charged with second-degree leaving the scene of a boating accident resulting in death, second-degree death by vessel, third-degree leaving the scene of a boating accident resulting in serious bodily injury, fourth-degree assault by vessel and two counts of assault by vessel.

At the time of his arrest, prosecutors said an investigation by New Jersey State Police found that Kelly’s boat sustained damage consistent with damage to a boat operated by Edwin Lane.

Lane; his wife, Mary; and family friends Robert and Eileen Roon were on his boat approaching a marina the evening of Sept. 5, 2016, when they were struck from behind by another boat. That boat immediately left the scene.

Ed Lane and Robert Roon suffered serious head injuries in the collision. Injuries to Mary Lane and Eileen Roon were not life-threatening.

Ed Lane died a few weeks later at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center.