Inset: Eonias Mateo-Perez (Wright and Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services). Background: The Saint Magdalen Cemetery in Flemington, N.J., where Eonias Mateo-Perez was allegedly killed while using an industrial-grade wood chipper known as "The Intimidator" (Google Maps).
A New Jersey landscaper was "pulled into" a woodchipper known as the "Intimidator" at a cemetery, sending him through and shredding the man to death after the "defective" machine malfunctioned, a lawsuit from his family says.
The estate of Eonias Mateo-Perez, 22, is suing Michigan-based equipment company Bandit Industries for the June 2024 accident, claiming the "Intimidator" chipper he was using "lacked adequate warnings, lacked features necessary to make it safe for its intended use, contained design features which made it unsafe for its intended purpose, was designed in such a way that the Woodchipper did not properly shut off, and did not prevent a user being drawn into the machine," according to his family's legal complaint, which was filed in Hunterdon County superior court.
Mateo-Perez was doing landscaping work at Saint Magdalen Cemetery in Flemington as an employee for the lawn care company William LaRue Services when he was killed, his estate says.
"[Mateo-Perez] was tasked with feeding trees into the woodchipper," the complaint says. "At the time of the incident, and unbeknownst to [Mateo-Perez], the woodchipper malfunctioned and/or improperly operated without the necessary safety mechanisms, causing [Mateo-Perez] to be pulled into the woodchipper at a high rate of speed, sending [Mateo-Perez] through the woodchipper."
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
The "Intimidator 19XPC," as Bandit Industries calls it, features Bandit's "most powerful feed system available on a hand-fed chipper," according to the company's website.
"The Slide Box Feed System" that the machine comes with features a "massive" 25-inch-wide by 15-¾-inch-diameter "top feed wheel" powered by a chain drive system, and a 25 inch wide by 10 5/8 inch wide "bottom feed wheel roller," the website says, "generating an astonishing 10,824 pounds of pulling power."
According to Bandit, "This means larger material is pulled in easier, reducing the time and labor costs for trimming while increasing production."
Mateo-Perez's estate claims the allegedly defective "chipper" and Bandit itself violated the New Jersey Product Liability Act, which allows any claim or action to be brought by a claimant for harm caused by a product, irrespective of the theory underlying the claim.
"Parents, Lucindo Mateo Hernandez and Adelia Perez Lopez … have sustained pecuniary injuries … including, but not limited to, the value of his companionship and the loss of his prospective services in the future together with any hospital, medical and funeral expenses incurred," the family's complaint alleges.
