What you should know
- The woman convicted of driving drunk when she struck and killed a New York police officer on the Long Island Expressway in 2021 will spend decades behind bars after being sentenced Wednesday to the maximum sentence.
- Jessica Beauvais was sentenced to 27 years in prison plus five years of post-release supervision: 20 years for aggravated murder and two and a third to seven years in prison for leaving the scene of an incident. She has to serve a minimum of 22 years in prison. The 35-year-old was found guilty in October for the April 2021 early morning crash that killed Officer Anastasios Tsakos.
- Beauvais previously admitted that he had been drinking and smoking marijuana before getting into his car that same morning of the highway accident.
NEW YORK — The woman convicted of driving drunk when she struck and killed a New York police officer on the Long Island Expressway in 2021 will spend decades behind bars after being sentenced Wednesday to the maximum sentence.
Jessica Beauvais was sentenced to 27 years in prison plus five years of post-release supervision: 20 years for aggravated murder and two and a third to seven years in prison for leaving the scene of an incident. She has to serve a minimum of 22 years in prison. The 35-year-old was found guilty in October for the April 2021 early morning crash that killed Officer Anastasios Tsakos.
Beauvais previously admitted that he had been drinking and smoking marijuana before getting into his car that same morning of the highway accident.
Tsakos’ wife, Irene, entered the Queens courtroom on Wednesday as dozens of New York police officers lined the hallway in a show of solidarity. She addressed the court before sentencing and detailed the consequences of her husband’s death.
“I was in shock until the thought of our children came to mind and I realized I had to go home to tell my babies that their dad, their favorite person, was gone,” she said, struggling to contain her emotions. tears. “That broke me.”
Beauvais spent the sentencing hearing looking down, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
Tsakos, a 14-year veteran of the police department and father of two, and his partner were on the Long Island Expressway while responding to a fatal crash near Francis Lewis Boulevard. The two set up a roadblock to help investigators process the scene.
Prosecutors previously said Beauvais was so drunk and high that she didn’t see the flashing lights and drove straight toward Tsakos. Police said her blood alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit after she attempted to flee the scene of the incident.
According to police, at the time of the crash, Beauvais’ driver’s license was apparently suspended for failure to pay a Driver Responsibility Assessment in connection with a speeding conviction. Prosecutors with the Queens district attorney’s office said that before the crash, Beauvais had been on a Facebook live stream, downing shots of vodka on camera. The jury was also told that when Beauvais tried to flee from police, he put his car in reverse and crashed into a police cruiser.
A paramedic who treated Tsakos at the scene described the serious injuries he suffered, including an amputated leg and cuts to his face.
“She hit him with so much speed, so much power, so much force that his body slammed into the hood of her car,” Gregory Lasak of the district attorney’s office said in early October. “She left him there on the side of the road for her to die without her leg.”
Beauvais’ defense team had argued that Taskos was not wearing a reflective jacket and was not paying attention to oncoming traffic. During the trial, attorney Jorge Santos said the officer “was texting or talking on the phone. Unfortunately that’s what he was doing and he was looking down.”
Beauvais was found guilty of second-degree aggravated manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.
At his indictment in 2021, Beauvais tearfully apologized for the accident that killed Tsakos. In addition to his wife, Tsakos left behind a daughter and a son, who were 6 and 3 years old, respectively, at the time of his death.
“I’m sorry I hit him and that he’s dead,” he said.
In September, Beauvais rejected a plea deal that would have sentenced her to 16 years in prison.
“She had the opportunity to plead guilty and she didn’t,” New York Police Department Detectives Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo said before the sentencing. “She rolled the dice and was found guilty. Now, I hope she gets the maximum sentence and this will give this family some comfort and closure moving forward.”
2024-02-21 18:38:45
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