Man on drugs sentenced for Brooklyn crash that paralyzed woman – NBC New York

A Long Island man was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for a 2021 wrong-way Brooklyn crash while high on PCP and marijuana that left a woman a quadriplegic, the local district attorney announced Thursday.

Virgilio Rodriguez, 51 and of Rockville Center, was sentenced to 7 ½ to 15 years in prison after being convicted last month of aggravated vehicular assault, second-degree assault and driving while ability impaired by drugs, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

The sentence is in connection to a Nov. 6, 2021 East Williamsburg crash. On that day, at around 12:49 a.m., Rodriguez was driving a Ford F-150 truck at a high speed when he ran a red light, going the wrong way on a one-way street, before t-boning a ride-share vehicle carrying two passengers and a driver. The district attorney said that the impact sent both of the vehicles onto the sidewalk and into the side of a building.

Rodriguez, whose license was previously revoked, exited his vehicle and began to undress in the middle of the street while shouting, “I’m alive” — before briefly leaving the scene on foot before returning and trying to re-enter the truck.

According to the district attorney, Rodriguez, was stopped by police who found PCP and marijuana in the vehicle’s center console, and showed signs of being high. Rodriguez was subsequently taken to the 78th Police Precinct where he stripped down to his underwear, began chanting and crawling on the ground before trying to climb the holding cell.

One of the passengers in the Uber, a 28-year-old woman, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition where she underwent emergency spinal surgery. The following day, she was transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was placed on a ventilator due to respiratory failure — where she remained for over a month and underwent a tracheostomy to help her breathing. The victim remained hospitalized at Mount Sinai until March 8, 2022, and continues to receive round-the-clock medical care.

The second passenger, 27, and driver of the Uber, 39, were taken to Elmhurst Hospital for minor injuries.

“This defendant’s reckless decision to drive while under the influence of drugs forever altered the life of a young woman, leaving her with catastrophic injuries and a lifetime of challenges,” Gonzalez said. “His actions that night were a threat to everyone on the road, and his callous disregard for the law and for human life has left a family devastated.”