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Responding cops pursued Pena into the Metropolitan Subway Station and apprehended him.
By Forum Staff
Ramon Pena, 39, has been sentenced to up to 22 years in prison for causing a deadly collision with a box truck on Metropolitan Avenue outside the Metro Mall on July 30, 2020, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz recently announced.
A 25-year-old motorist died as a result of the wreck.
Pena pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the second degree and leaving the scene of an incident on Sept. 13. Last week, Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder sentenced the defendant to seven and one-third to 22 years in prison.
Katz said that at approximately noon on June 30, 2020, Pena stole a box truck from 101st Avenue in Jamaica and started driving the vehicle in an unsafe manner through several neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn, striking approximately 20 parked and moving cars along the way.
File Photo
“Every individual who gets behind the wheel of a vehicle bears the moral and legal responsibility to do so safely. The senseless mayhem that the defendant caused is unacceptable,” DA Katz said. “He has now been held accountable for his actions and will serve time in prison as imposed by the court.”
An eyewitness reported seeing the box truck traveling upwards of 50 miles per hour, running red lights and driving on the wrong side of the road.
At approximately 1 p.m., the defendant was observed running a steady red light at the intersection of Rentar Plaza and Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village and slamming into the driver’s side of a black Honda CR-V, being driven by Hamlet Cruz-Gomez. The 25-year-old victim was transported to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead as the result of the injuries sustained in the collision.
Pena proceeded to jump out of the box truck and run into the nearby Metropolitan Subway Station, where he was apprehended by the police.
“The defendant left a trail of destruction that culminated in a deadly collision when a young man was tragically killed as the result of the defendant’s reckless driving. Every individual who gets behind the wheel of a vehicle bears the moral and legal responsibility to do so safely. The senseless mayhem that the defendant caused is unacceptable,” Katz said. “He has now been held accountable for his actions and will serve time in prison as imposed by the court.”
