A Queens man who prosecutors said was high on marijuana when he caused a high-speed crash on the Southern State Parkway that killed his sister and another woman last year was setentenced to up to 18 years in prison on Friday during a gut-wrenching hearing in a packed Nassau County courtroom n Mineola.<\/p>\n
Nassau Assistant District Attorney Katie Zizza said Jaden D\u2019Souza, 20, was doing 123 mph in the eastbound lane near Exit 30 while weaving in and out of traffic just before the Jan. 12, 2025 crash. Authorities said D\u2019Souza lost control of his 2016 Dodge Dart which drove off the road and crashed into a tree.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Souza\u2019s sister, Haily D\u2019Souza, 21, and Crystal Alba-Figueroa, 23, died in the crash. Another passenger, Anthonie (cq) Marte, 23, suffered injuries that will haunt him for the rest of his life, Zissa told Acting Supreme Court Justice Caryn Fink.<\/p>\n
Fink sentenced D\u2019Souza to an indeterminate sentence of seven to 18 years in prison.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Souza openly wept at times as he hugged family and members and friends outside the courtroom before Fink sentenced him late Friday morning. He spent a long time hugging Yajaira Figueroa, Alba-Figueroa\u2019s grieving mother.<\/p>\n
Figueroa told the court later that the loss of her daughter was devastating, \u201can open wound I carry with me every day,\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she would leave it to Fink to determine an appropriate punishment for D\u2019Souza. \u201cI do not seek revenge,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
D’Souza pleaded guilty on March 23 to aggravated vehicular homicide, two counts of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, third-degree assault and driving while ability impaired by drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael O’Keeffe covers Suffolk County police and other Long Island law enforcement agencies. He is an award-winning journalist and the co-author of two books,”The Card” and\u00a0“American Icon.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens man who prosecutors said was high on marijuana when he caused a high-speed crash on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[303,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-224834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-crime","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224834","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=224834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}