Thursday, February 17, 2005

D.A. BROWN: QUEENS DRIVER PLEADS GUILTY TO CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE IN FATAL HIGHWAY CRASH THAT KILLED REAR SEAT PASSENGER EJECTED THROUGH WINDOW; FACES JAIL TERM

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a 19-year-old Queens youth has pled guilty to criminal negligent homicide in a fatal highway crash in which a backseat passenger was ejected from the vehicle and killed.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has admitted his guilt, waived his right to appeal and acknowledged that his negligent actions while driving a vehicle caused the death of a passenger who was ejected through a rear window to his death.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Shon Faruque, 19, of 41-50 48th Street in Sunnyside, Queens. The defendant pled guilty earlier today to Criminally Negligent Homicide before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt who indicated that on March 9, 2005 she would impose a sentence of five months in jail and five years probation.

District Attorney Brown said that according to the criminal complaint the defendant on December 23, 2004 at about 4:24 a.m. was operating a white 1996 Mazda Millenium proceeding eastbound on the Grand Central Parkway at 62nd Road at approximately 105 mph and thereafter at a reduced speed of between 85 and 90 mph when he lost control of the vehicle, crashing into a highway barrier. The rear passenger, Mohammad Hoque, 20, was ejected from the vehicle and fatally injured. The legal speed limit is 50 miles per hour.

Assistant District Attorney Vance Kuhner of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Deputy Bureau Chief, and Richard B. Schaeffer, Senior Trial Attorney, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.