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Incident location, Long Island
What Happened
A Moriches teenager pleaded guilty on February 11, 2026, to 19 criminal charges — including aggravated vehicular homicide — stemming from a fatal drunk-driving crash on Old Stone Highway in Springs that killed a 19-year-old East Hampton woman and left six others injured last June, according to a report by The East Hampton Star.
The driver, of Moriches, was behind the wheel of his 2006 Toyota Camry on the night of June 15, 2025, driving seven teenagers home from Maidstone Beach. Six of the seven passengers were crammed into the back seat of the sedan. At some point on Old Stone Highway, he lost control of the vehicle, struck a tree, and the car rolled onto its side. The posted speed limit on Old Stone Highway is 30 miles per hour; recording software installed in the vehicle documented him traveling at speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour in the moments immediately before impact, police said. He had also been drinking prior to the crash, according to authorities.
A 19-year-old woman from East Hampton was killed in the crash. She had dreamed of joining the Army, according to a GoFundMe page set up following her death. That campaign raised nearly $70,000, buoyed by a significant donation from the East Hampton Teachers Association. All six other occupants of the vehicle sustained injuries. One 18-year-old passenger suffered particularly severe harm: a spinal fracture and what the Suffolk County district attorney described as “significant disfigurement” of her hand. Among the other passengers — all from East Hampton — were two who were 19, one who was 18, one who was 17, and one who was just 15 years old at the time of the crash. That 15-year-old’s presence in the vehicle gave rise to a charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle, one of the most serious counts in the indictment.
The driver, who was 18 at the time of the crash and his subsequent arrest, entered his guilty plea allocution in front of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, admitting to all 19 charges. The East Hampton Star reported that he had originally faced a maximum of 25 years in prison, but under the terms of the plea agreement he will receive a sentence of four to 12 years. He turned 19 while in jail awaiting resolution of the case.
The full list of the most serious charges, as reported by The East Hampton Star, includes: aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter in the second degree, aggravated vehicular assault, vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, two counts of assault in the second degree, vehicular assault in the first degree, two counts of vehicular assault in the second degree, and aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle. Eight additional misdemeanor charges and one speeding infraction rounded out the 19 total counts to which he admitted guilt.
His attorney described the evening of June 15 as “extremely tragic, all around,” and noted that her client had no prior criminal record before the crash. “From day one he has never made excuses,” she told the Star. She added that the driver has matured significantly during his eight months in custody and has taken full responsibility for his actions. Under his attorney’s advisement, he had not yet directly addressed the family of the deceased — but that will change at sentencing. The driver has written a letter to the family, which he will be permitted to read aloud in the courtroom after victim impact statements are delivered. Before the crash, the driver had participated in a two-year BOCES law enforcement program and had planned to join the military — a path his attorney recently informed him is no longer available to him, even after he completes his sentence.
Location & Road Context
Old Stone Highway in Springs is a two-lane residential road winding through the Springs hamlet of East Hampton in eastern Suffolk County. With a posted speed limit of just 30 miles per hour, it is not designed to handle the speeds the driver’s vehicle was documented reaching before impact. Springs is a densely residential community between Accabonac Harbor and Gardiner’s Bay, where road conditions and low speed limits reflect the neighborhood character. For more on accident patterns in the East End, see our coverage of roads in Suffolk County and accidents on Long Island’s East End.
This stretch of the East End has seen other serious crashes in recent months. A major three-car crash on nearby Napeague resulted in serious injuries as recently as April 28, 2026, underscoring the ongoing danger on rural East End roadways.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
Following the June 15, 2025 crash, the driver was arrested and subsequently indicted by Suffolk County. His case proceeded through the county court system before landing before Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski for the guilty plea allocution on February 11, 2026. The East Hampton Star reported that the plea covered all 19 counts in the indictment — nine felonies of varying degrees, eight misdemeanors, and one speeding infraction.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 18, 2026. At that proceeding, the driver will be formally sentenced and remanded. He will then be transferred to a “downstate” facility for several months, where corrections officers will assess him before determining which upstate prison he will serve his sentence in. The four-to-12-year range is binding under the plea agreement, a significant reduction from the 25-year maximum he initially faced. As previously reported by Long Island Traffic, the driver was ultimately sentenced on March 18.