Not a good mix:
"NY teen gets 5 to 15 years for wreck that killed 4" Associated Press August 27, 2014
MINEOLA, N.Y. — A New York City man who was high on marijuana and speeding at over 100 miles per hour when he crashed his sports car into a tree on a Long Island highway, killing four of his friends, was sentenced Tuesday to 5 to 15 years in prison.
Joseph Beer, now 19, apologized to the victims’ families in a two-page statement he read before being sentenced by Nassau County Court Judge David Sullivan.
The judge rejected a defense motion to give Beer a four-year sentence as a youthful offender; he was 17 at the time of the crash.
‘‘There isn’t a day when I don’t beg God for his forgiveness,’’ Beer said as his hands trembled at the defense table describing the deaths of his friends, whom he called brothers. ‘‘I don’t think I will ever be able to forgive myself.’’
Beer pleaded guilty in July to the top count of aggravated vehicular homicide in the fiery crash on the Southern State Parkway. He was driving faster than 100 miles per hour, prosecutors said, when he smashed into a tree on a stretch of highway dubbed Dead Man’s Curve because of a treacherous hill that leads to a sharp curve.
All four passengers — 18-year-olds Christopher Khan, Peter Kanhai, and Darian Ramnarine, and 17-year-old Neal Rajapa, all of Queens — were killed instantly.
The wreck at about 4 a.m. on the Columbus Day holiday in October 2012 cut the high-performance Subaru in half.
Beer was the lone survivor and had only minor injuries.
Bryant Barr, stepfather of Kanhai, said after the sentencing that it was ‘‘a tragedy on both sides,’’ including for Beer’s family. Barr said his family ‘‘can find forgiveness in our heart’’ even though he thought Beer exhibited ‘‘a lack of remorse.’’
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