Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that a Queens County grand jury has indicted Victor Mitchell, 34, on vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter and other crimes for a car crash that killed the defendant’s 8-year-old son. According to the charges, sobriety tests showed the defendant consumed alcohol and marijuana and was in an intoxicated state before the single-vehicle crash on August 16, 2020 in Far Rockaway, Queens.

District Attorney Katz said, “This is a tragic case. A little boy is dead, his life cut short by his father’s decision to get behind the wheel of a car after smoking pot and drinking. If you drive while impaired by drugs or alcohol in Queens, my office will hold you accountable. The defendant now faces serious charges for his alleged actions.”

Mitchell, of Central Avenue in Albany, is charged in an 18-count indictment with aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter in the first and second degree, criminally negligent homicide, aggravated driving while intoxicated, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, operating a motor vehicle while impaired by combined use of drugs or of alcohol and drugs, reckless driving and endangering the welfare of a child. The defendant was arrested this morning at an address in Yonkers and is presently awaiting arraignment in Queens Supreme Court. If convicted, Mitchell faces up to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.

District Attorney Katz said the defendant and his 8-year-old son, Sincere Mitchell, were on the road around 6:50 a.m. on August 16, 2020 when Mitchell’s Acura slammed into a telephone pole. Sincere was rushed to a nearby hospital and underwent an emergency surgery to repair a tear in his heart. Unable to breathe on his own, the child was placed on a ventilator. Days later, it was determined he had no brain function. He died on August 21, 2020.

According to the charges, a police-administered breathalyzer test showed the defendant’s blood alcohol content to be .118 and the result of a Draeger drug test was positive for THC, a main ingredient of cannabis.

The investigation was conducted by members of the Collision Investigation Squad of the New York City Police Department’s Highway District 3.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Timothy Shortt, of the District Attorney’s Career Criminal and Major Crimes Bureau, is prosecuting the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Shawn Clark, Bureau Chief, and Michael Whitney, Deputy Bureau Chief and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel Saunders.