A drunk driver will spend at least four years in state prison after leaving his friend to die in a fiery, Greenwood Heights crash in 2017.
Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice on Jan. 9 slapped 24-year old Marine Park resident Saeed Ahmad with a four-to-12-year sentence following his November guilty plea to second-degree manslaughter.
Ahmad is eligible for parole after serving four years in a state penitentiary and, if denied at first, he can apply for parole once every two years until his full sentence is served, according to the district attorney’s spokesman Oren Yaniv.
Ahmad smashed his car into a barrier on the Gowanus Expressway while attempting to speed past another car between the Hamilton Avenue and Prospect Expressway exits at 4 am on Oct. 13, 2017, causing his Infiniti sedan to burst into flames, according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
The driver fled the scene in a taxi without calling 911, Gonzalez said, leaving behind his passenger, 25-year-old Harleen Grewal, who later died from injuries sustained in the collision.
Police arrested Ahmed later that morning, and found his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit of .08 at the time of the crash, according to the district attorney.
