Man sentenced in racing crash that killed 2 teens in Pearl River
NEW CITY - Jason Castro got a year in the county jail for causing the death of two teenagers when his car and a Porsche crashed in 2019 while racing along Route 304 in Pearl River.
Rockland County Court Judge Kevin Russo sentenced Castro on Tuesday based on his July guilty plea to felony criminally negligent homicide. Castro, 47, of Nanuet admitted his guilt in a plea agreement with the Rockland District Attorney's Office.
On Oct. 13, 2019, Castro and Aisha Radoncic, then 17, crashed their cars as they raced down Route 304, weaving in and out of the roadway's lanes, authorities said. Radoncic drove a 2017 Porsche Macan. Castro drove a Volkswagen.
The two Porsche passengers who died were Pearl River High School senior and football player Altin Nezaj, 17, and 15-year-old Saniha Cekic of Brooklyn. Radoncic and Cekic were cousins.
Radoncic's case was disposed of in Rockland Family Court. Orangetown police had charged Radoncic and Castro in June 2020 with two felony counts of second-degree manslaughter and misdemeanor reckless driving.
District Attorney Thomas Walsh said the "recklessness and selfish actions the defendant chose to engage in on that day have left two families with untold grief and a void that will never be filled."
"Driving at high rates of speed and ignoring vehicle and traffic laws is irresponsible and puts everyone on the road in danger," Walsh said.
Investigation, court appeal delay prosecution
The case had been delayed for a more than eight-month forensic investigation into the dual crash by the state police investigators and the Orangetown police.
A further delay came when the District Attorney's Office appealed Russo's dismissal of the grand jury indictment charging Castro. An Appellate Division panel overruled Russo and reinstated the charges in February 2022.
Scene: Pearl River crash scene neighbor tells how he tried to rescue teens
The panel jurists found the prosecution's evidence legally sufficient to support the charges of manslaughter and reckless driving.
The jurists ruled that "the evidence before the grand jury, if accepted as true, established that in addition to traveling at the excessive rate of speed of approximately 80 to 90 mph, the defendant's vehicle and the Porsche were weaving in and out of traffic, without braking or signaling.
"As the Porsche and the defendant's vehicle approached a sharp bend in the roadway, they were traveling side-by-side, with the Porsche in the left lane," the court ruling said. "The defendant's (Castro) vehicle struck the Porsche while attempting to enter the left lane, which caused the Porsche to hit the left-hand curb of the roadway and fly at least a couple of hundred feet' in the air before coming to rest at the bottom of the highway.”
The appellate ruling states that Castro told a police sergeant at the scene that he did not see the Porsche when he attempted to maneuver his vehicle into the left lane and believed the Porsche was in his blind spot. He also acknowledged to the officer that "he was “kind of racing” with the Porsche, the decision said.
Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com Twitter: @lohudlegal
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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Driver sentenced in Pearl River NY fatal racing crash
