The father of a New York City teen accused of causing a fatal accident while driving 101 mph in a 30-mph zone was sentenced to probation for crimes linked to the 2023 crash, officials said.
Sean Smith, 40, had been accused of helping facilitate his son’s access to the 2005 BMW involved in the May 17 crash that left a 14-year-old passenger dead, the Office of the Queens District Attorney said in a news release.
The driver — then 16 — had a junior driver’s license and was prohibited from driving in New York City without a parent in the car, the DA’s office said.
The teen, now 17, was charged with multiple crimes, including second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment in a case that is ongoing, according to the DA. He faces 15 years in prison if convicted on the manslaughter charge.
It wasn’t immediately clear if he has entered a plea. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Smith pleaded guilty in June to endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced to three years’ probation, according to the release. He must also take a 26-week parenting class and attend a victim impact program.
The teen’s mother, Deo Ramnarine, also pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and disorderly conduct in June and was ordered to complete the parenting class and victim impact program. If successfully completed, she can withdraw her guilty plea, the prosecutor’s office said.
After the crash, Smith told police that he’d bought the BMW for his son, according to the release, which noted that Smith told the car’s insurer that the teen had driven it only twice and that he’d been with him both times.
But witnesses at the teen’s school said he regularly drove it, and the school’s administrator previously told the teen’s parents that he was driving to school, according to the release.
In 2022, the teen was ticketed for driving without a license and driving while using an electronic device, the DA said.
The crash occurred at 6:38 p.m. on May 17, 2023, near John F. Kennedy International Airport. The teen was trying to change lanes and lost control of the BMW, first crashing into a parked UPS truck, then spinning across the road and striking a tractor-trailer, according to the release.
Fortune Williams, 14, was in the car’s passenger seat and was ejected when the BMW hit the UPS truck. She suffered severe head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the DA’s release.
At the time, she’d been preparing for her birthday and a school honor roll ceremony, NBC New York reported.
“She was very beautiful, smart, loving, kind, caring, sweet — everything that’s good,” her mother told the station.
The driver later told authorities he’d picked Williams up at home and had been taking her to his grandmother’s house, the release says.
A UPS worker who was getting into the truck when it was hit suffered non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
Lawyers for the teen’s parents said they were concerned prosecutors had overreached with the charges.
“It’s stretching liability to a point where it could raise real dangers that parents could be held responsible for things that they had no idea could occur,” said Randall Unger, attorney for Ramnarine.
Asked if Ramnarine was aware her son was driving on his own with a junior license, Unger said: “The district attorney so alleges and I’m not contesting.”
Smith’s lawyer, James Polk, declined to comment on specific details about the case but said his client had been charged for a crime that he wasn’t present for and had no knowledge of.
“That’s far-reaching in my opinion,” he said. “It gives prosecutors a good deal of power, and I think we should be concerned about that.”
A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said he could not immediately respond to a request for comment.
