A Sopranos bit-player has landed in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons — facing a staggering 31 criminal counts after an alleged road-rage shooting that left a New Jersey woman bloodied and terrified.
Ernest W. Heinz, 46, who made a brief appearance on the HBO hit back in 2006, is accused of losing control behind the wheel and firing a bullet straight into a stranger’s face during a fiery encounter near Stockton University on September 11.
Police say Heinz — driving a white Honda CR-V — became enraged while merging lanes with 37-year-old Maritza Arias-Galva. Witnesses claim he screamed from his window before allegedly pulling out a .380 handgun and opening fire, striking the woman as she sat helpless in her car.
Arias-Galva miraculously survived. Speaking from her hospital bed days later, she told The Philadelphia Inquirer she tried to calm the stranger down, only for him to reply chillingly: “I’m taking your life today.”
“I was thinking about my kids,” she said. “I needed to survive this.”
Cops later traced Heinz to a nearby home and took him into custody. But that wasn’t all — investigators uncovered a stash of weapons hidden in a storage unit the actor allegedly visited just minutes after the shooting. The grand-jury indictment now includes attempted murder, multiple firearm felonies, and dozens of additional charges linked to the cache.
Heinz’s attorney insists he’s being “misrepresented,” urging the public to withhold judgment. But prosecutors say the evidence is overwhelming — including surveillance footage showing Heinz returning home armed and agitated less than ten minutes after the attack.
Heinz is being held without bail and will face arraignment on January 30, 2026 — a stunning fall from grace for the onetime Sopranos extra now accused of starring in his own real-life crime drama.
Would you like me to give you a few headline and sub-headline variations in this same sensational tone (like Daily Mail, RadarOnline, or New York Post style)?
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