New York:
An Indian-descent construction executive has been given a sentence of up to 25 years for driving at 150 kmph while drunk and high on cocaine resulting in a crash that killed two teen tennis players.
Amandeep Singh was sentenced on Friday to a maximum prison time of 25 years with a minimum of eight years and four months in Mineola on Long Island as nine family and friends of the victim angrily denounced him in court.
“Your anger towards me is fully understood and totally justified,” a penitent Singh told them before he was sentenced.
“This was all my fault. Losing a child is the greatest grief. I have committed the great sin. If anyone should have died, it should have been me,” he told Judge Helene Gugerty.
The crowd of the popular teens’ supporters who had come to witness the sentencing was so large that two additional courtrooms were opened to accommodate them.
Under the sentence Gugerty imposed, Singh has to serve the minimum sentence before he can be considered for parole, based, among other things, on his conduct in prison, with the term extending to 25 years if he doesn’t qualify for parole.
Singh, 36, worked as a project manager for a construction company.
Nassau District Prosecutor Anne Donnely said that on a night in May 2023, Singh sped the wrong way at 150 kmph in his Dodge Ram truck in a zone with a 65 kmph speed limit.
He hit the Alfa Romeo with four teens, two of whom survived the crash, and he was caught hiding near a garbage dumpster, she added.
Tests revealed that he had a blood alcohol level of 0.15 per cent, nearly twice the limit of 0.8 per cent, and the presence of cocaine, she said.
The two 14-year-olds who died, Ethan Falkowitz and Drew Hassenbein, were budding tennis stars who were returning from celebrating their victory in a match.
Falkowitz’s family has set up a foundation in his honour to promote tennis among young people.
Along with the US Tennis Association and others, it hosts a tennis classic tournament in his honour.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)