A Port Republic man accused of shooting a woman during a road rage incident in Galloway Township has been indicted on 31 counts.
Ernest Heinz, 46, originally faced five charges, including first-degree attempted murder, in the Sept. 11 attack that wounded Maritza Arias-Galva and sparked the lockdown of Stockton University’s main campus.
Most of the additional charges are related to weapons offenses, after several firearms were found inside a storage facility Heinz allegedly visited within a half-hour of the shooting.
Heinz is accused of shooting the victim with a .380 caliber handgun that was apparently registered to his father, who shares his name.
The younger Heinz had been at is parents’ Galloway Township home taking care of his ailing father before leaving that day in a white Honda CRV registered to his mother, BreakingAC previously reported.
Video shows him entering that home in a township development less than 10 minutes after the shooting, holding a small gun matching the one the victim described to police, according to the state.
He then was seen leaving the home minutes later with a black rifle case and red Wawa bag.
In the 20 minutes that pass before he returns, Heinz allegedly went to an acquaintance’s storage facility, where the weapons later were found.
The guns recovered, according to the charges, include a Beretta Nano 9mm handgun, Ruger LC9 9mm pistol, three 12-gauge shotguns, a 20-gauge shotgun and a Marksman BB pistol.
The .380-caliber Sig Sauer handgun used also is named in the charges, along with .380-caliber ammunition and a Browning ammunition magazine.
Heinz is not legally allowed to own weapons due to a still-active domestic violence restraining order from 2002, records show.
The charges on the indictment also include two counts each of hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence for allegedly hiding both the CRV and the handgun that was discharged.
Heinz was living in California working as an actor and real estate agent, before returning home to help care for his dying sister, who had since passed away, his attorney told the judge during his detention hearing Sept. 25.Â
Now he was taking “the night shift” to help his mother care for his father.
He had been there overnight before the shooting.
Arias-Galva told police she was driving north on South Pomona Road heading toward the White Horse Pike on the outside lane of travel, when she put on her turn signal to merge into the inside lane, where there was a white SUV that sped up and then cut her off.
The other driver then tried to ram her car twice, blocked her path and then followed her onto Jimmie Leeds Road, she said.
He started screaming at her at the red light at the entrance to Stockton, threatened to kill her and then pointed the gun, she said.
“I remember the deafening sound of the gunshot as the bullet shattered my window,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page. “Glass flew everywhere, and blood poured down my face. I managed to call 911, but my vision was obscured by the blood. I feared he would return to finish what he started.”
Heinz has been in the Atlantic County Justice Facility since his arrest. He is due in court Jan. 30.
