Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Uniondale woman was sentenced to seven to 15 years in prison for Aggravated Vehicular Homicide and related charges stemming from a May 2021 drunk-driving crash that killed a man seated in a parked car.
Tasha Brown, 29, pleaded guilty on October 14, 2022, to Aggravated Vehicular Homicide (a B felony); Assault in the Second Degree (a D violent felony); and Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated (an unclassified misdemeanor) before Judge Howard Sturim. The defendant was sentenced Tuesday to seven to 15 years in prison.
“Tasha Brown was severely intoxicated when she slammed into a parked car on Front Street at more than 90 miles per hour with an unsuspecting Nelson Fuentes inside,” said DA Donnelly. “The 29-year-old victim suffered extensive injuries and died as a direct result of the defendant’s recklessness and selfishness. Now, Tasha Brown has been held responsible for her actions with a significant prison sentence.”
DA Donnelly said that, according to the indictment and investigation, on May 29, 2021, at approximately 4:35 a.m., the defendant, in a 2016 Toyota Corolla with three passengers, was driving west on Front Street at the intersection of Hendrickson Avenue in Hempstead, when she veered off the roadway and struck several parked cars while driving more than 90 mph. One of those parked vehicles, a 2010 Toyota Corolla, was occupied by Nelson Fuentes.
Fuentes suffered fatal injuries in the crash and was pronounced dead at NUMC at 5:26 a.m.
Brown was arrested on May 29, 2021, in Hempstead by detectives of the Hempstead Police Department and the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Alexander DePalo of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau. The defendant is represented by William J. Kephart, Esq.