The father of a New York teenager accused of causing a fatal crash while driving 100 mph in a 30 mph zone has been sentenced to probation for crimes related to the 2023 crash, authorities said.
Sean Smith, 40, was accused of helping facilitate his son’s access to the 2005 BMW involved in the May 17 crash that left a 14-year-old passenger dead, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
The driver — then 16 years old — had a junior driver’s license and was prohibited from driving in New York City without a parent in the car, the prosecutor’s office said.
The teenager, now 17, has been charged with multiple crimes, including second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment in a case that is ongoing, according to the prosecutor. He faces 15 years in prison if convicted of the manslaughter charge.
It was not immediately clear whether he had entered a plea. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Smith pleaded guilty in June to endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced to three years probation, according to the release. He must also take a 26-week parenting course and participate in a victim impact program.
The teen’s mother, Deo Ramnarine, also pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and disorderly conduct in June and was ordered to complete the parenting course and victim impact program. If completed successfully, she could withdraw her guilty plea, the prosecution said.
After the accident, Smith told police he bought the BMW for his son, according to the release, which noted that Smith told the car’s insurance company that the teen had driven it only twice and that he had been with him both times.
But witnesses at the teen’s school said he drove regularly, and the school administrator previously told the teen’s parents that he drove to school, according to the release.
In 2022, the teenager was fined for driving without a license and driving using an electronic device, the prosecutor said.
The accident occurred at 6:38 pm on May 17, 2023, near John F. Kennedy International Airport. The teen was trying to change lanes and lost control of the BMW, first colliding with a parked UPS truck, then spinning across the road and hitting a trailer, according to the release.
Fortune Williams, 14, was in the passenger seat of the car and was ejected when the BMW crashed into the UPS truck. She suffered severe head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the prosecutor’s statement.
At the time, she was preparing for her birthday and school honor roll ceremony. NBC New York reported.
“She was very beautiful, intelligent, loving, kind, caring, sweet – all the good things,” her mother told the station.
The driver later told authorities he picked Williams up from home and was taking her to her grandmother’s house, the release says.
A UPS employee who was getting into the truck when it was struck suffered non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Lawyers for the teen’s parents said they were concerned that prosecutors had exaggerated the charges.
“This is expanding liability to a point where there could be real dangers that parents could be held responsible for things they had no idea could occur,” said Randall Unger, Ramnarine’s attorney.
Asked whether Ramnarine knew her son was driving alone with a junior driver’s license, Unger said: “The district attorney alleges that and I’m not contesting it.”
Smith’s attorney, James Polk, declined to comment on specific details about the case but said his client was accused of a crime of which he was not present and of which he had no knowledge.
“That’s far-reaching in my opinion,” he said. “That gives prosecutors a lot of power and I think we should be concerned about that.”
A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said he could not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
