A Lengthy Island girl who ran over and killed an anti-gang activist — the mom of an MS-13 homicide sufferer — was sentenced to 9 months behind bars Thursday.
Ann Marie Drago, 60, was convicted of criminally negligent murder final 12 months within the 2018 demise of Evelyn Rodriguez, a number one voice on gang violence after her teenaged daughter was allegedly slain by the infamous road gang, Newsday reported.
“I’ll take my punishment,” Drago advised Rodriguez’s household in Suffolk County courtroom Thursday, ABC-TV reported. “I hope it’ll assist you in your therapeutic course of.”
“There’s not a day that I don’t consider you ladies and your loss because of my actions.”
The lethal Sept. 14, 2018 encounter was sparked over a memorial to Rodriguez’s daughter exterior Drago’s mom’s house in Brentwood — and hours earlier than a vigil was deliberate for the second anniversary of the demise of Kayla Cuevas, the slain teen.
“I simply ran over anyone,” Drago mentioned in a frantic 911 name after the incident. “She’s on the street. She’s not shifting. I feel I ran over her head. There’s blood. She’s not shifting.”
The incident was captured on video by Information12 Lengthy Island.
Drago’s household had claimed that that they had been unable to promote her mom’s house as a result of mourners continued to point out as much as pay their respects to Cuevas.
Drago claimed she felt threatened when Rodriguez and her parter, Freddy Cuevas, ran as much as her Nissan Rogue pointing at her and shouting expletives after she dismantled the memorial for Cuevas.
However, protection attorneys mentioned, she didn’t notice she had run over Rodriguez.
Cuevas, 16, and one other teenager, Nisa Mickens, 15, have been allegedly crushed with bats and hacked to demise with machetes. Members of MS-13 are awaiting trial within the case.
Prosecutors had requested Performing State Supreme Courtroom Justice Fernando Camacho handy down a sentence of 1 to three years for Drago, whereas protection attorneys had requested for probation, Newsday reported.
“Evelyn’s demise was useless,” Camacho mentioned in courtroom Thursday. “Ann Marie is accountable, and there must be penalties.”
