Vincent Jean, 56, was convicted by a jury back in February on a list of charges including first-degree attempted murder.
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Jean drove directly at 23-year-old Morgan Scott as she took photos of his car after the pair were involved in a minor car accident on Salem Avenue and Aberdeen Road in April 2022, prosecutors said.
Scott suffered severe injuries, including a fractured neck, spine and lacerated liver, and she was taken to University Hospital in critical condition.
Elizabeth police eventually located Jean sitting alone in the driver's seat of his parked, damaged SUV on Jefferson Avenue. Prosecutors said he is unemployed and has a prior violent conviction for aggravated assault.
The harrowing incident was caught on video, and there were at least five witnesses.
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The judge said Jean showed depraved indifference to human life and called it a miracle that the victim lived.
"The horror of what happened to her lives within us every day. Every single day we all fight with different ghosts of what has taken place because of this man," the victim's father, Ian Scott, said in court.
Jean was also charged with second-degree aggravated assault, third-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, third-degree assault by auto, third-degree leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident with serious bodily injury, third-degree endangering an injured victim and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
"You can see that justice was served in some way. Even though I'm crying I'm so grateful," Morgan Scott said outside court following the sentencing.
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