Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Freeport man was sentenced today to six to 18 years in prison for striking and killing a 24-year-old woman in March 2023 while he was driving drunk.
Tyshaun Johashen, 32, pleaded guilty on August 30, 2023, before Judge Robert Bogle to charges of Aggravated Vehicular Homicide (a B felony), Assault in the Second Degree (a D violent felony), Aggravated Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle in the First Degree (an E Felony) and Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated (an unclassified misdemeanor).
The defendant was sentenced today to six to 18 years in prison. The NCDA recommended a sentence of seven to 21 years in prison.
“Tyshaun Johashen was at least three times the legal limit for alcohol and driving with a suspended license when he struck and killed Mia Pollidore,” said DA Donnelly. “I am weary of having to talk to families who have lost loved ones to drunk and drugged drivers. This prison sentence — and a lifetime of having to live with taking another person’s life — is the result of making the reckless choice to drink and get behind the wheel. This defendant’s actions left two families heartbroken, and at sentencing today that heartbreak was on display as the mother of this defendant embraced Mia’s mother and apologized for what her son had done. Lives continue to be ripped apart on our roads. Enough is enough.”
DA Donnelly said that, according to the charges, on March 1, 2023, at approximately 7:02 p.m., the victim, 24-year-old Mia Pollidore, was walking westbound across Babylon Turnpike just south of the intersection of Babylon Turnpike and Carroll Street. The defendant, driving a 2018 Nissan Sentra, was highly intoxicated while driving southbound on Babylon Turnpike when he struck the victim as she crossed the street.
The victim suffered trauma to her head and legs and was pronounced deceased at the scene at 7:11 p.m.
Johashen was arrested at the scene by members of the Nassau County and Freeport Police Departments, and it was later determined that he was driving at least 60 miles per hour at the time of impact.
The posted speed limit in the area is 30 miles per hour.
The defendant’s blood alcohol content, taken more than three hours after the crash, was a .24.
At the time of the crash the defendant’s driver’s license was suspended pursuant to a DWI prosecution in Queens. That case is pending.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Tara DePalo of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case. The defendant is represented by Richard Langone, Esq.