A convicted drunk driver was sentenced to a long time in jail for hitting and killing two center faculty tennis stars on Lengthy Island final spring.
Those that knew and beloved Ethan Falkowitz and Drew Hassenbein packed the courtroom Friday and two overflow rooms for the sentencing of Amandeep Singh, who was in the end sentenced to 25 years in jail for inflicting the Might 3 wrong-way crash.
Singh had pleaded responsible final month to driving drunk and excessive, and crashing pickup truck at 90 miles an hour right into a automotive carrying the 2 highschool tennis gamers and two of their teammates.
Drew Hassenbein and Ethan Falkowitz.
“What this man committed is just beyond thinkable, and he gets 25 years?” mentioned Mitch Hassenbein.
“[Ethan’s] future was limitless. And now we’re left with no recourse, no justice. Just a lifetime of pain, heartache and utter disbelief,” mentioned Gary Falkowitz.
Falkowitz’s dad was certainly one of 9 relations who over the course of roughly two hours in a packed courtroom, condemned Singh as a assassin and talked in regards to the vivid selfless teenagers Singh had killed.
“Why didn’t you go home, you turkey? You should have just gone home to your two kids,” shouted Jack Hassenbein, the 14-year-old’s grandfather.
After the crash, police physique cameras captured Singh mendacity about his involvement; he had run from the crash scene and was discovered hiding behind a dumpster.
In courtroom for his sentencing, Singh apologized, “The disregard I showed for others makes me sick. If anyone should have died, it should have been me.”
“His eyes were down, he was crying. You know, this is just an unspeakable tragedy,” James Kousouros, Singh’s lawyer, mentioned.
Nassau County’s district lawyer, who mentioned Singh provided “hollow words,” once more known as for more durable drunk driving penalties, a cry echoed by one of many crash survivors.
Zachary Sheena mentioned the crash left him with bodily and emotional scars, however he vowed to foyer for more durable penalties.
“I don’t know why I survived, but it will not be in vain,” Sheena mentioned in courtroom.
