A jury in Atlantic City convicted Harris Jacobs of knowingly leaving the scene of a fatal crash that killed 76-year-old Orlando Fraga-Seruti in September 2022. The timing of Gov. Phil Murphy’s pardon is disputed: Jacobs’s attorney said Murphy issued it around 8:30 a.m., before jurors announced the verdict at 10 a.m. The pardon did not erase the conviction.
Fraga-Seruti was walking on Atlantic Avenue after leaving a casino early on Sept. 4, 2022, when he was struck by a Toyota 4Runner, according to The New York Times. Jacobs was driving on the 1800 block of Atlantic Avenue around 3:35 a.m., per NBC10 Philadelphia. The SUV was registered to Jacobs’s father, according to Downbeach BUZZ.
Surveillance Footage and the Investigation
Surveillance footage captured Jacobs getting out of the 4Runner and leaning over Fraga-Seruti’s body twice before driving away, according to the station’s report. He did not call police. Jacobs and his father exchanged 10 phone calls in the hours after the crash.
Investigators used security-camera footage from businesses along the SUV’s route to track it and found Jacobs at his apartment about seven hours after the crash, per the Times. The paper’s March investigative feature drew on trial testimony, surveillance footage, family interviews and court records.
Retrial Ends in Conviction
Jacobs’s first trial, in 2025, ended in a hung jury. At his retrial, a jury found the 28-year-old Atlantic City man guilty on Jan. 20, 2026, of second-degree knowingly leaving the scene of a fatal motor-vehicle accident, according to the same station’s account. The conviction carried a potential sentence of five to 10 years under New Jersey law, the Inquirer reported.
Murphy granted clemency to Jacobs as one of his final acts in office. NBC10 Philadelphia reported that Jacobs was among 97 people pardoned. Separately, Politico reported that Murphy’s final round of clemency actions covered 148 people in total and included a handful with political connections or prominent backgrounds. Available reporting does not reconcile the two figures.
Accounts Differ on When the Pardon Was Issued
Jacobs’s attorney said Murphy issued the pardon around 8:30 a.m., before jurors announced their verdict at 10 a.m. NBC10 Philadelphia reported that the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said it had been told the pardon was coming while jurors were still deliberating. The governor’s official release, however, was not posted until after the verdict.
Jacobs is the son of Joe Jacobs, whom NBC10 Philadelphia described as an Atlantic City power broker and Democratic fundraiser with ties to Murphy and his wife, Tammy Murphy. Downbeach BUZZ has also described the elder Jacobs as a prominent New Jersey attorney and political donor who held prominent political jobs in Atlantic City.
Prosecutor Criticizes the Outcome
Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds criticized the outcome. Downbeach BUZZ reported that prosecutors were angry over what they viewed as the apparent influence of political power and connections on the case’s resolution.
Fraga-Seruti's family had pursued the case for roughly four years before the conviction came down, according to the seed reporting. New Jersey's clemency office notes that a governor's pardon and commutation actions are matters of public record and are reported to the state Legislature, according to the New Jersey Office of the Governor.
What a Pardon Does—and Does Not Do
A New Jersey pardon does not erase a conviction from a person’s record or remove the underlying facts of the offense, according to the New Jersey Office of Clemency. The office also says pardon and commutation actions are public record and reported to the state Legislature. In a separate expungement case decided in 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court said a pardon removes legal disabilities linked to a conviction but does not erase the underlying facts. The court said the pardon made that petitioner eligible to seek expungement; that separate ruling does not mean Jacobs’s conviction was expunged.
