Brendan Gibbons is stone-faced after watching a repeat felon get three-and-a-half to seven years of prison time in exchange for pleading guilty to killing Brendan’s brother in a drunken driving wreck. His father, George Gibbons Sr., and sister Siobhan Gibbons—along with three other siblings—also attended the court appearance.Forum Newsgroup photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.
Peter Rodriguez pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he killed Maspeth bar owner George Gibbons in a drunken, wrong-way collision on a Long Island Expressway service road in October.
He will be sentenced on May 7 to three-and-a-half to seven years in prison for negligent homicide and leaving the scene of a crime without reporting it.
Rodriguez, a 37-year-old Brooklyn resident, has been held without bail since his capture on Nov. 15—a month after the crash.
He was originally faced with 15 years in prison for second-degree manslaughter, but prosecutors accepted a guilty plea to a lesser charge instead of going to trial.
The Gibbons family is now preparing statements to enter into the record on the day of sentencing in hopes that Rodriguez receives the maximum penalty and no parole.
“We’re all going to tell them what kind of person [Rodriguez] took—not just from the family but from the community,” Bernadette Gibbons, George’s sister, said.
Rodriguez did not turn to face the family during the proceedings.
“To not even have him look you in the eye is a pain we can’t describe,” Bernadette said.
“He never looks, same as last time,” said Eamen Gibbons, one of George’s two brothers. “He just walks out like nothing.”
This hearing was the first time George Gibbons Sr. saw his son’s killer in person.
In the courtroom he held his chin in his hand and stared at the back of Rodriguez’s head as he faced the judge.
After exiting the courthouse, George Sr. could not hold back his emotion as he talked to family members and reporters. He choked up answering questions about seeing Rodriguez.
“I was just angry that he had taken my son,” George Sr. said.
George, 37, was taken on Oct. 15 after he closed his bar, Gibbons’ Home, in Maspeth.
He was on his way home in the back of a livery cab when a Chrysler Sebring going the wrong direction struck the cab, killing Gibbons, and injuring the cab driver and a passenger in the Sebring.
The driver of the Sebring, who police later identified as Rodriguez, fled the scene.
The Gibbons family, Maspeth neighbors and politicians pulled together a $10,000 reward for Rodriguez’s capture and peppered Queens with fliers of his face.
He was apprehended in Connecticut on Nov. 15 thanks to an anonymous tip.
“We all stuck together all the time,” said Siobhan Gibbons, one of George’s two sisters. “We had big support from the community and were very thankful.”
Even in Queens Supreme Court on Friday, at least two dozen friends packed the room.
Because Rodriguez is a previous felon, the minimum sentence he can receive for leaving the scene is three-and-a-half years.
Rodriguez was previously convicted of felony attempted drug possession in 2004 and felony gang assault in 2007.
If his record was clean, he could have gotten out in two-and-a-half years, prosecutors explained.
Leaving the scene also has the longest sentence – 7 years–prosecutors thought they could seek, they explained.
The charge of negligent homicide carries a prison term of two to four years, which will be served concurrently.
Prosecutors said they insisted he plead guilty to that charge because they wanted Rodriguez to admit some form of responsibility for George’s death—despite it adding no extra years to the sentence.
“It will never be enough for our family,” said Bernadette, who left the bar minutes before George on the night he died.
She said despite help from the district attorney and the community, the law simply wasn’t enough.
In a release about the guilty plea, District Attorney Richard Brown seemed aware of the family’s desire for a harsher penalty.
“No amount of words can undo the damage or pain that the defendant has caused. Hopefully this guilty plea will give some measure of solace to the victim’s family and will serve as a measure of justice for a senseless death,” he said. “The sentence to be imposed—the maximum sentence allowed under the law—is appropriate based on the provable facts.”
The Gibbons family said after the hearing that this isn’t the end of the fight. They want the law changed.
It’s in the preliminary stages as they work with Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Maspeth) on the legislation, but they already have a name: “George’s Law.”
Crowley helped sponsor the reward for Rodriguez’s capture and pushed for him to get the maximum penalty.
The family isn’t sure yet what the law will address, be it drunken driving, seat belts, or creating tighter penalties for repeat criminals like Rodriguez.
“He shouldn’t be on the streets in the first place,” said Brendan Gibbons, George’s brother and an NYPD officer in Manhattan.
As he wrapped his arm around his father outside the courthouse, Brendan explained they want the law to stop this heartache from happening to another family—despite its inability to change George’s death.
“No [jail] time is going to bring him back,” Brendan said.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
