Judge to decide on evidence in tunnel weapons case

FILE – This June 22, 2016, file photo shows a vehicle sitting in the impound lot of The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey's Port Authority Police Department, a day after three Pennsylvania residents in the vehicle that carried a cache of weapons were stopped before entering the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City, N.J. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez announced her decision Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, not to throw out evidence against the three Pennsylvania residents, who said they were on a mission to rescue a teenager from a New York heroin den when they were stopped in the vehicle that contained five handguns, a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) (The Associated Press)

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FILE – In this June 22, 2016, file photo, Kimberly Arendt, left, John Cramsey, center, and Dean Smith are seen on a monitor during their video arraignment at the Hudson County Courthouse in Jersey City, N.J. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez announced her decision Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, not to throw out evidence against three Pennsylvania residents who said they were on a mission to rescue a teenager from a New York heroin den when they were stopped June 21, 2016, before entering the Holland Tunnel in a vehicle containing five handguns, a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) (The Associated Press)

Dean Smith, center, a defendant in the Holland Tunnel weapons case, appears before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez in Jersey City, N.J., where he faces weapons possession charges. (Ed Murray/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool) (The Associated Press)

A New Jersey judge is weighing the fate of three Pennsylvania residents who said they were on a rescue mission to help save a teenager from a New York heroin den when they were stopped with a cache of weapons.

Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez is to rule Monday in Jersey City on whether a police officer had probable cause to stop the car at the Holland Tunnel last June.

John Cramsey, Dean Smith and Kimberly Arendt, all of Pennsylvania, have pleaded not guilty to weapons possession charges.

The story already has ended tragically for the teen at the center of the case.

James Patterson says his daughter, Jenea (jeh-NAE'), died of an apparent drug overdose last month at a hospital near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.