Sentencing day for man who killed 4 in Massapequa crash as outraged family speaks out at court
MINEOLA, N.Y. - A Lindenhurst man who killed four members of one family after driving high and crashing into their car was sentenced Friday.
It happened last summer in Massapequa.
Michael DeAngelo was sentenced to 7-21 years.
The Huntley family, of Uniondale, was out for ice cream celebrating Marine veteran Pat Huntley's job promotion, and were stopped at a red light.
Video captured DeAngelo's car barreling at 120 miles per hour down Sunrise Highway, like a missile, obliterating the Huntley's car, prosecutors said.
Huntley was killed, along with his two children - Jeremiah, 10, and Hannah, 13, and later his granddaughter Chantel Solomon, 6. Two more of the Huntley children were injured in the crash.
Officials say DeAngelo was high on cocaine and fentanyl and had a long history of drug use.
Outraged family speaks out at court
"He belongs behind bars. He doesn't belong in the real world," Huntley's daughter Zaiore Lee said.
"It has been really hard trying to go through life not being a mom now," Divina Hamilton, Solomon's mother, said. "I have to explain why my daughter died, and why I don't have her."
The prosecutor said they were robbed of an entire lifetime, saying they were "a family with three generations of mothers who had to bury children."
"A normal afternoon for a family. But up on the road, Michael DeAngelo was a menace. He was a driving erratically for miles," Nassau County DA Anne Donnelly said.
"I am taking full responsibility. It's my fault. Words do not exist that would explain my remorse," DeAngelo told the court.
"Those are just words. It's very easy for him to say 'I would exchange my life for this,'" a member of the family said.
The judge told him it's "small consolation to the victims that you didn't intend to kill anyone," and "being addicted to drugs is not an excuse for what you did."
"Given chance after chance to change, but he never took them. He has two prior convictions for driving under the influence," Donnelly said.
An impaired, speeding driver who killed multiple people has been sentenced at the same courthouse every week for the past month.
Donnelly says the crisis on the roads must end.