{"id":35439,"date":"2025-11-10T22:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/35439\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:25:08","slug":"nyc-driver-sentenced-for-killing-man-in-ram-mishap-as-lawyer-claims-shes-wonderful-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/35439\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC driver sentenced for killing man in ram mishap — as lawyer claims she’s ‘wonderful person’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A driver who crushed an innocent disabled bystander<\/a> as she tried to run down a rival on a Queens sidewalk was hit with an 18-year prison term, prosecutors said Monday.<\/p>\n

Kiani Phoenix, now 29, was aiming her Honda Accord at her \u201cabusive\u201d boyfriend\u2019s sister <\/a>after the two women got into a fight outside a Far Rockaway deli \u2013 but instead crushed 59-year-old victim Milton Storch as she hit the gas in August 2022, the Queens District Attorney\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage<\/a> of the brutal crash showed Phoenix\u2019s Honda jump the sidewalk and smash into Storch, who is helplessly sitting in front of the store and immediately pinned into the wall. <\/p>\n

Kiani Phoenix will spend 18 years in prison for the hit and run. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n

\u201cKiani Phoenix made the deadly decision to get behind the wheel and aim her vehicle at another woman to settle their dispute,\u201d Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTragically, an innocent man seated in a walker could not escape her path and lost his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot undo what happened, but hopefully this sentence brings a measure of comfort to Milton Storch\u2019s loved ones as they continue to mourn his loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prison sentence was handed down by\u00a0Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder on Friday.<\/p>\n

She previously pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on Oct. 9, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The deadly driving was sparked when she and the 27-year-old sister of her boyfriend got into a scuffle around 7 a.m. outside Rohan Deli, according to her past lawyer.<\/p>\n

Milton Storch was killed as the car rammed into him. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n

Phoenix then jumped in her car, put the car in reverse and veered toward the sister who ran inside the store to avoid danger, according to prosecutors and video.<\/p>\n

But Storch, who was sitting on his walker, wasn\u2019t able to scramble away and was caught in the crosshairs.<\/p>\n

Phoenix then backed into a 36-year-old man and drove off, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

The victim was 59 years old and used a walker. Facebook\/Milton Storch<\/p>\n

Her lawyer, Robert Osuna, said the guilty plea and prison time would allow everyone in the case to move on even if he felt 18 years in lock-up was excessive.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to accept responsibility and give closure,\u201d he said, adding Phoenix prays for the victim every day. He called his client a \u201cwonderful person\u201d who committed a \u201ctragic mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her past lawyer, Marvyn Kornberg, previously told The Post the alleged abuse endured by Phoenix set the stage for the deadly crash. Both Kornberg and Osuna have said Phoenix was attacked by the boyfriend\u2019s sister before she hopped in her car.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a victim of domestic violence but there\u2019s no guarantee under the law that you\u2019ll get sentenced like that,\u201d Osuna said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A driver who crushed an innocent disabled bystander as she tried to run down a rival on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[254,6070,57,9,56,63,65,64,122,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-35439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-car-crashes","9":"tag-manslaughter","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-queens","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35439","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=35439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}