BRONX MAN SENTENCED TO UP TO 15 YEARS IN PRISON FOR DRIVING A
TRUCK WHILE DRUNK, KILLING A THREE-YEAR-OLD BOY AND INJURING HIS
MOTHER AND ANOTHER PEDESTRIAN

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 58-year-old man has been sentenced to a maximum term of up to 15 years in prison in the death of a three-year-old boy whom the defendant struck and killed while driving drunk.

State Supreme Court Justice Robert Torres sentenced Freddy Rodriguez, 58, to a maximum term of 5 to 15 years imprisonment for Manslaughter in the 2nd degree in the death of Saquann Williams. Rodriguez must also serve up to 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison on one count of Vehicular Manslaughter; 6 years for two counts of Vehicular Assault in the 2nd degree, for injuries sustained by the child’s mother, Tasha Gibbs, and another pedestrian, Giselle Buie; 1 1/3 to 4 years on one count of vehicular assault; and one year for Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol.

The sentences will run concurrent as a matter of law, since all of the offenses of which he was convicted arose from a single criminal act. The jury convicted Rodriguez earlier this month on the third day of deliberations following a five-week trial.

The crimes occurred on August 1, 2005 in the vicinity of Mount Eden Avenue and East 173rd Street when the intoxicated defendant drove a truck through a red light and struck the little boy, his mother and a third pedestrian. Saquann Williams was crushed to death while his mother Tasha Gibbs suffered a fractured skull, punctured lung and broken pelvis. The third pedestrian, Giselle Buie, suffered severe brain trauma. The truck that Rodriguez was driving also slammed into several occupied vehicles before coming to a stop, however the jury acquitted the defendant in connection with injuries sustained by the occupants of those vehicles.

A friend of the defendant had left the truck double parked with the ignition turned off and the gears in reverse. The People argued that an intoxicated Rodriguez got into the truck and attempted to move it, as a prank, by releasing the gears and allowing it to roll downhill. Once the truck was in motion the defendant’s intoxicated state and limited knowledge of how to operate the gears caused the vehicle to roll downhill out of control with deadly consequences.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Gary Weil.