Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Jason Bical was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for aggravated vehicular manslaughter after pleading guilty last month to striking and killing a 63-year-old motorist on the Belt Parkway while under the influence of cocaine, marijuana and alcohol in December 2020.

District Attorney Katz said: “This defendant admitted he was driving at almost double the speed limit while intoxicated with drugs and alcohol. He already had two prior Driving While Ability Impaired by Alcohol convictions from Brooklyn and should never have been behind the wheel. Neither his admission nor his sentence will return the life that was lost.”

Bical, 36, of East 73rd Street in Brooklyn, was sentenced yesterday in Queens Supreme Court by Justice Michael Aloise to five to fifteen years in prison. The defendant pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter in the first degree last month.

According to Court records, at about 12:45 a.m. on December 9, 2020, the defendant was driving a white 2017 Chevrolet Malibu, registered to his family-owned business, Bical Chevrolet of Valley Stream. The defendant was speeding westbound on the Belt Parkway near 131^st Street at 92 mph when he struck the victim, Taher Ali Hassan, also of Brooklyn. Mr. Hassan was rushed to a local hospital with severe head trauma and later died due to his injuries.

DA Katz said Bical’s blood alcohol level was .174 – twice the legal limit. Further toxicology results showed that the defendant also had significant amounts of both cocaine and marijuana in his system at the time of the crash. Two plastic bags containing cocaine were recovered from the center console of the defendant’s car. The Crash Data Recorder recovered from Bical’s vehicle revealed that he was driving 92 mph just five seconds before striking the victim. The posted speed limit on the Belt Parkway is 50 mph. Bical was the Service Department manager at Bical Auto Mall in Brooklyn at the time of the incident.

Assistant District Attorney Timothy R. McGrath, of the District Attorney’s Felony Trials Bureau II, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Mark Osnowitz, Bureau Chief, Rosemary Chao, Deputy Bureau Chief, Charissa Ilardi, Deputy Bureau Chief, Michael Kavanagh, Section Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney of the Supreme Court Trial Division Pishoy Yacoub.