{"id":173448,"date":"2026-03-24T17:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/173448\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T17:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:12:08","slug":"queens-man-pleads-guilty-after-deadly-crash-under-the-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/173448\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens man pleads guilty after deadly crash under the influence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"700\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Anne-donnelly.jpg\" class=\"crop-center wp-post-image\" alt=\"Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced a guilty plea from the driver of a 2025 fatal drugged-driving crash.\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced a guilty plea from the driver of a 2025 fatal drugged-driving crash.<\/p>\n<p>Schneps Media archives<\/p>\n<p>The driver in a January 2025 drug-influenced crash that left two passengers dead and one injured pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide on March 23, District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jaden D\u2019Souza, 20, from Queens, was driving on the Southern State Parkway with his sister Haily D\u2019Souza, 21, Crystal Alba-Figueroa, 23, and another 23-year-old passenger when he lost control of the vehicle, ran off the road and hit a tree, according to a release from Donnelly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Haily D\u2019Souza and Crystal Alba-Figueroa were both pronounced dead on the scene of the Jan. 12 crash.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Donnelly recommended a sentence of seven to 21 years in prison for Jaden D\u2019Souza, and the release said he is expected to be sentenced to seven to 18 years at his May 8 court date.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis defendant, high on marijuana, handled his car like he was playing an arcade game, zipping through traffic and speeding along the bends and curves of the Southern State Parkway at more than 120 miles per hour,\u201d said Donnelly in the statement. \u201cHis reckless disregard for his passengers \u2013 his family and friends \u2013 ended with his sister and a friend dead, and another passenger who is lucky to be alive today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>D\u2019Souza pleaded guilty before Judge Caryn Fink.<\/p>\n<p>The crash didn\u2019t just result in two deaths. The release said the third passenger was taken to Nassau University Medical Center with serious physical injuries, including spinal fractures and a traumatic brain injury. D\u2019Souza went to the same medical center for his injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The release said a tire from D\u2019Souza\u2019s car collided with a second car on the parkway, causing a crash and injuries to the driver.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo many drivers are taking risks driving high or showing off at excessive speeds without considering the deadly consequences of their actions,\u201d Donnelly said in the release. \u201cThis epidemic on our roadways must end, and I hope that this prosecution serves as an example for drivers of the accountability they will face if they get behind the wheel impaired and cause a tragic crash.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced a guilty plea from the driver of a 2025 fatal drugged-driving&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4166,2214,70721,70722,70723,6210,9,24,63,122,124,123,19067,20646],"class_list":["post-173448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-anne-donnelly","tag-crash","tag-donnelly","tag-driving-while-influenced","tag-jaden-dsouza","tag-marijuana","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-southern-state-parkway","tag-weed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}