XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, nyc.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: abe.lincoln.was@a.fool   
      
   The 14-year-old New York City girl was fatally thrown from a friend’s   
   speeding BMW last year.   
      
   Now, the parents of the unlicensed teen driver have both been sentenced in a   
   case the Queens District Attorney said in a statement illustrates that “the   
   culpability in a fatal crash can go beyond the driver.”   
      
   The teen driver’s father, Sean Smith, 40, and his mother, Deo Ramnarine, 43,   
   each pleaded guilty last month to endangering a child, according to   
   prosecutors. Ramnarine additionally pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.   
      
   On Monday, the father was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered   
   to, among other requirements, take a 26-week parenting class. The mother   
   must also enroll in the parenting class, among other requirements, which, if   
   completed, would enable her to withdraw her child endangerment guilty plea.   
      
   Just past 6:30 p.m. on that fateful May 2023 evening, the teen driver — who   
   was then 16 and whose name has not been released because he is a minor — was   
   driving a red 2005 BMW along North Conduit Avenue, going 101 miles per hour   
   in a 30 mile per hour zone, per prosecutors.   
      
   His friend, Fortune Williams, was sitting in the passenger’s seat beside   
   him, en route to his grandmother’s house.   
      
   Losing control of the vehicle, the teen — whose case is ongoing — rammed   
   into a UPS truck, which spun his car across the roadway and struck a moving   
   tractor-trailer on the roadway, per prosecutors.   
      
   Fortune jetted through the windshield and into the back of the UPS truck,   
   causing severe head trauma, according to prosecutors, who said she was   
   pronounced dead at the scene.   
      
   A UPS employee, who was climbing into his truck when the BMW slammed into   
   it, was thrown to the ground and treated for injuries, per prosecutors.   
      
   In the hospital room with his son who had minor injuries, the teen’s father   
   told police, per prosecutors, that he had bought the BMW — registered in his   
   name — for his son, who prosecutors allege only had a junior driver’s   
   license, which prohibited him from driving in New York City “under any   
   circumstances.”   
      
   “Parents who provide vehicles to their children and let them drive illegally   
   can be held responsible in the case of tragedies such as this one,” Queens   
   District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement announcing the sentencing   
   of both parents.   
      
   Fortune’s friends and family, who PEOPLE previously reported, started a   
   GoFundMe in her name after the crash, said she was an “an absolute delight   
   of a child.”   
      
   The 14-year-old was remembered as “well-mannered, hard-working, very caring   
   towards her siblings” and “filled with teenage wit and a youthful glamour   
   only she could carry."   
      
   With a love of fashion and helping her mother in the kitchen, she had   
   dreamed of growing up to work in the medical field, per the fundraising page   
   that has since been removed.   
      
   Three weeks after the crash, the father of the driver claimed to the car’s   
   insurer that his son — who he said was a good driver — had driven the BMW   
   just twice before and that he had always accompanied his son on the drives.   
      
   However, people at the teen’s school “saw him regularly driving the same   
   BMW,” prosecutors claimed, adding that a school administrator had contacted   
   the parents about the teen driving to school.   
      
   The teen was also ticketed for driving without a license and driving while   
   using a portable electronic device, per prosecutors.   
      
   The teen, now 17, was arraigned in December on a slew of charges connected   
   to the crash, including second-degree manslaughter, three counts of second-   
   degree assault, third-degree assault, second-degree reckless endangerment,   
   endangering the welfare of a child, reckless driving, driving in excess of   
   the maximum speed limit, unsafe lane change on a roadway laned for traffic,   
   making an unlawful turn, two counts of operating a motor vehicle with a   
   tinted windows, operating or driving a motor vehicle without a license and   
   operating a motor vehicle in violation of a restricted permit or license.   
      
   He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top count, per   
   prosecutors. It was not immediately clear who he had retained as a lawyer.   
      
   https://people.com/unlicensed-teen-killed-girl-car-crash-prosecutors-say-   
   why-were-his-parents-convicted-sentenced-8682516   
      
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