On Monday, the parents of a 16-year-old boy who killed a 14-year-old girl after driving his BMW at over 100 miles per hour were handed a three-year probationary term and ordered to complete 26 weeks of parenting training. The child was given the vehicle by his parents in New York.
Due to his age, the teen’s identity has not been disclosed. Last December, he was arraigned on a dozen offenses, including reckless endangerment of a child and second-degree homicide. The maximum sentence for this offense is fifteen years in jail.
In May 2023, in the Springfield Gardens district of Queens, he slammed his red BMW into the rear of a parked UPS truck, according to prosecutors. His junior driver’s license forbade him from driving alone in New York City under any circumstances.
Fortune Williams, a first-year student at Springfield Gardens High School, was flung from the vehicle and declared dead at the scene, according to authorities, while the adolescent driver managed to escape the accident with minor injuries.
Sean Smith, 40, and Deo Ramnarine, 43, the teen’s parents, were charged with endangering the welfare of a child after it was discovered that they had given him the car and let him drive it to school despite being warned by school administrators that he was too young to drive legally.
In what prosecutors called a “groundbreaking” and “the first of its kind in New York” case, the parents faced charges of endangering the welfare of their kid.
During Monday’s sentencing hearing in Queen’s criminal court, Smith—who pled guilty in June—apologized.
Keisha Francis, Fortune’s mother, was present in court and stated that she thought Smith really regretted his actions.
Fortune was enrolled in nursing classes at school with the intention of becoming a doctor. Red roses, her beloved flower, are routinely left at her daughter’s grave by Fortune’s mother, who visits her weekly. To this day, she continues to pay Fortune’s phone bill in order to hear her daughter’s voicemail greeting.
On that fateful day, Fortune embraced her brother tightly as she made her way to the car; she assured him that she would only be out for a short while.
She hopped in the car with the adolescent, going to his grandma’s house.
His alleged speed was 101 mph while he was traveling west on North Conduit Avenue close to 160th Street at around 6:38 p.m., according to prosecutors. It was a 30-mph speed zone.
