FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2005

D.A. BROWN: QUEENS MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER IN FATAL HIT AND RUN THAT CAUSED DEATH OF ELDERLY WOODSIDE MAN
Will Be Sentenced to 1½ to 4½ years in Prison

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Long Island City mechanic who struck and killed a 76-year-old man while speeding down a Woodside street and then fled the scene has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the incident.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has admitted that he recklessly drove an automobile at a high rate of speed in the wrong lane of traffic. The result of his actions was the untimely death of a devoted husband, father and grandfather. The defendant has now been held accountable for his crime and will serve serious prison time, giving him time to reflect on his misdeed.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Royce Quigua, 31, of 61-05 39th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. The defendant pleaded guilty earlier today to Manslaughter in the Second Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Hanophy who indicated that he would sentence the defendant to an indeterminate term of 1½ - 4½ years in prison at sentencing on January 24, 2006.

The District Attorney said that the defendant admitted in court that on March 13, 2005 at about 7 a.m. he operated a 1990 Mitsubishi sports car at a high rate of speed in excess of the speed limit and in the wrong lane of traffic on a two-way street. The defendant claimed that he was being chased by another vehicle with flashing lights. As a result of his actions, Donald Hennessy, 76, was struck and killed at the corner of 31st Avenue and 56th Street in Woodside, Queens.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Neal J. Morse of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau prosecuted 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.