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Incident location, Long Island
What Happened
A 19-year-old man has been indicted on 13 felony counts — including aggravated vehicular homicide — after prosecutors say he drove drunk and killed a 48-year-old Bay Shore man on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa on April 19, with his own father now also facing criminal charges for allegedly pouring the vodka shots that preceded the deadly crash.
According to Greater Long Island, the 19-year-old suspect was allegedly behind the wheel of his father’s Bentley with a blood alcohol content of 0.20 percent when he made a sharp turn across multiple lanes of traffic on Sunrise Highway at Unqua Road. The maneuver sent him directly into the path of a Polaris Slingshot — the distinctive three-wheeled open-cockpit vehicle — operated by a 48-year-old Bay Shore man. The impact was catastrophic. The driver was thrown from the Slingshot and rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. His wife, who was also in the vehicle, was transported to the hospital with major injuries that required surgery, including the insertion of a metal rod in her leg.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, as reported by Greater Long Island, stated that the suspect had been “in the driver’s seat of his father’s Bentley tossing back multiple shots of vodka” before the crash occurred. Blood drawn from the suspect approximately four hours after the collision registered a BAC of 0.20 percent — two and a half times New York State’s legal limit of 0.08 percent. Investigators recovered a 1.75-liter bottle of vodka and several empty miniature bottles from inside the vehicle, further corroborating the prosecution’s account of events.
The circumstances leading up to the crash take on an especially alarming dimension because of who allegedly supplied the alcohol. Prosecutors say the suspect’s father, 42, a Freeport resident, not only provided his son with liquor before the drive, but specifically poured shots for him inside the Bentley in the moments before the suspect pulled away. DA Donnelly’s office charged the father with first-degree and second-degree reckless endangerment, contending that his actions directly enabled the fatal sequence of events that unfolded on Sunrise Highway that April evening.
Both men were arraigned on Wednesday, October 22, 2025. The suspect was arraigned on a sweeping 13-count indictment encompassing two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, first- and second-degree vehicular manslaughter, second-degree manslaughter, and multiple assault and driving while intoxicated charges. He pleaded not guilty to all counts. Given the gravity of the charges, the court set bail at $500,000 cash, $1.25 million bond, or $2 million partially secured bond — conditions the suspect did not meet, and he remains incarcerated. The father also pleaded not guilty to his reckless endangerment charges and was released on his own recognizance. Both defendants are due back in court on December 2, 2025.
The Bay Shore man who died was 48 years old at the time of his death. His wife, who survived the crash, faces a long recovery after undergoing surgery to repair injuries serious enough to require a metal rod in her leg. The family’s loss, and the wife’s continuing physical recovery, underscore the human cost behind the felony counts now facing both the suspect and his father.
Location & Road Context
The crash took place on Sunrise Highway at Unqua Road in Massapequa, a densely traveled east-west arterial corridor in Nassau County that serves as a primary surface route across the South Shore of Long Island. Sunrise Highway carries significant residential and commercial traffic through this stretch of Massapequa, with multiple intersections, driveways, and cross-street connections that require careful lane discipline — particularly at night. The intersection at Unqua Road is a multi-lane crossing where an unexpected sharp turn across traffic, such as the one the suspect allegedly executed, creates an extreme collision risk for other motorists. Massapequa has seen a troubling pattern of serious crashes in recent months, including a wrong-way DWI crash on New Year’s Day that also resulted in an indictment, and a fatal single-vehicle crash in late December 2025 on the nearby Southern State Parkway.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
As detailed by Greater Long Island, the Nassau County District Attorney’s office built its case in part on the physical evidence recovered from the Bentley — a 1.75-liter vodka bottle and multiple empty miniature bottles — as well as the blood draw conducted on the suspect roughly four hours post-crash, which returned the 0.20 percent BAC reading. The extended timeline between crash and blood draw is legally significant: a BAC of 0.20 percent measured hours after the incident suggests an even higher level of intoxication at the moment of impact, a point prosecutors are likely to press at trial.
The suspect’s 13-count indictment represents some of the most serious vehicular charges available under New York State law. Aggravated vehicular homicide, the top count, carries a maximum sentence of 8⅓ to 25 years in state prison. The father, on the reckless endangerment charges, faces a maximum of 2⅓ to 7 years if convicted. DA Donnelly’s decision to charge the father signals a prosecutorial posture focused not just on the driver but on those whose actions enabled the drunk driving. Both defendants are next scheduled to appear in court on December 2, 2025.