{"id":383507,"date":"2026-07-02T12:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/383507\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T12:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:23:14","slug":"oakland-gardens-man-pleads-guilty-to-manslaughter-for-collision-that-killed-23-year-old-motorist-in-east-elmhurst-da-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/383507\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland Gardens man pleads guilty to manslaughter for collision that killed 23-year-old motorist in East Elmhurst: DA \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former FDNY firefighter from Oakland Gardens<\/a> pleaded guilty on Wednesday, July 1, to manslaughter in the second degree and vehicular manslaughter for driving while intoxicated<\/a> and slamming his Mercedes-Benz into another motorist at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and 107th Street in East Elmhurst<\/a> on Feb. 26, 2025. <\/p>\n

The victim, 23-year-old Justin Diaz, was driving northbound on 107th Street and had the right of way when he entered the intersection when off-duty firefighter Michael Pena<\/a>, 29, of 220th Street, t-boned his car at 83 miles per hour\u2014traveling three times the posted speed limit\u2014while Diaz was on his way to work at LaGuardia Airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the charges and the indictment, at 4:15 a.m. that morning, Pena was driving a silver Mercedes S63 Coupe eastbound on Northern Boulevard. He sped through a steady red light and slammed into the driver\u2019s side of a purple BMW driven by Diaz.<\/p>\n

\"JustinJustin Diaz was on his way to work at LaGuardia Airport when his car was slammed by off-duty FDNY firefighter Michael Pena, who was allegedly speeding on Northern Boulevard after a night of bar hopping in late February, 2025.
\n\"JustinJustin Diaz in the purple BMW he was ultimately killed in.Photo courtesy of Angelina Diaz<\/p>\n

The force of the impact sent his car into a parked vehicle. EMS rushed him to Elmhurst Hospital with severe trauma, where he was pronounced dead due to his injuries a short while later.<\/p>\n

\"DiazDiaz was killed by Michael Pena in a high-speed crash on Northern Boulevard in East Elmhurst.Photo courtesy of Angelina Diaz<\/p>\n

Pena stayed at the scene where a police officer observed a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, watery eyes, slurred speech and he was unsteady on his feet. A court authorized blood test indicated that Pena had a blood alcohol content of .17 at the time of the collision, which is above the legal threshold of .08%. He also had cocaine and marijuana in his system. The FDNY terminated Pena following his arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant\u2019s choices that morning irrevocably changed the lives of every family member, friend, neighbor and co-worker who loved Justin Diaz,\u201d Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. \u201cJustice demands that Michael Pena be held accountable for his actions, and through this plea, my office has ensured that Justin Diaz\u2019s death did not go unpunished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Hartofilis remanded Pena into custody and ordered him to return to court July 16 when he faces four to 12 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and 2 \u2153 to seven years on the vehicular manslaughter charge, to run concurrently.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, justice was finally served,\u201d Franklin Diaz, the victim\u2019s father said outside the courthouse. \u201cNo matter how many years Michael Pena serves in prison, it\u2019s still not going to bring my son Justin Diaz back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe family and friends were disappointed following the court disposition on Wednesday, July 1.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

He called on the state legislature to get tougher on drunk driving laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cDA Katz\u2019s office did a great job, they worked tirelessly to get justice for us but there\u2019s no reason that four to twelve years is an acceptable sentence for taking a life,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cAlbany, you need to start listening to your people. We need stricter laws, harsher punishment for severe crimes such as this. No family should have to go through this again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that while his family marked the one-year anniversary of the fatal crash on Feb. 25 on the Corona street corner co-named Justin Diaz Way, Pena was in a bar.<\/p>\n

\"WhenWhen his family was marking the one-year anniversary of his son\u2019s death on a the street corner co-named Justin Diaz Way on Feb. 26, his killer was in a bar, Franklin Diaz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be out in a few years, and his life will continue. He will be back in the bars, probably, as he\u2019s been doing all year long,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cWe hope this serves as a reminder that drinking and driving isn\u2019t a consequence for one life, it wasn\u2019t just one life that was destroyed that night, it was countless lives of our family and friends. An innocent life was taken because of reckless choices and disregard for human life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former FDNY firefighter from Oakland Gardens pleaded guilty on Wednesday, July 1, to manslaughter in the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[154924,154925,52609,154926,143,145,144,7349],"class_list":["post-383507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-driving-while-intoxicated","tag-justin-diaz","tag-manslaughter","tag-michael-pena","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-vehicular-manslaughter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}