Wednesday, June 8, 2005
D.A. BROWN: QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO UP TO FOURS YEARS IN PRISON FOR CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE FOR 2002 HIT-AND-RUN DEATH OF 15-YEAR-OLD BOY IN BELLEROSE
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Queens man has been sentenced to up to four years in prison for criminally negligent homicide for a death by auto incident in Bellerose in which a 15-year-old boy was killed.
District Attorney Brown said “The defendant has admitted his guilt and acknowledged that he was operating his vehicle in a criminally negligent manner when he struck and killed a 15-year-old boy. The tragic case is a grim lesson why speed can kill and underscores the need for tougher penalties for such crimes.”
District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Pierre Badette, 25, of 152-17 125 Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, a driver. The defendant pled guilty to Criminally Negligent Homicide on May 13, 2005 and was sentenced yesterday before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin Brandt to an indeterminate term of one and one-third to four years in prison.
The District Attorney said that according to the criminal charges on November 15, 2002 at 11:24 p.m. the defendant was operating a 2000 white Nissan Maxima and speeding westbound and struck Matthew Tedesco, 15, a sophomore at St. Francis Preparatory High School, who was crossing the street against the light after his friend had crossed at Union Turnpike and Little Neck Parkway in Bellerose, Queens, causing his death. The defendant made no attempt to stop his vehicle and fled the scene.
District Attorney Brown said that the defendant had seven suspensions and two revocations on his driver’s license between April 26, 2003 and March 23, 2004. The defendant was arrested last January 2005 -- two years following the incident -- after his older brother pointed him out to authorities after being arrested for check fraud.
The investigation was conducted by Detective Kenneth Meringolo of the New York City Police Department’s Accident Investigations Squad Highway Three.
Assistant District Attorney Mina Q. Malik, of the District Attorney’s Kew Gardens Trial Bureau I prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Robert J. Masters, Bureau Chief, and Therese M. Lendino and Robin D. Leopold, Deputy Chiefs, and the overall supervision of Senior Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials James C. Quinn.