An Oyster Bay man was convicted Friday of driving drunk, causing a crash that killed a 59-year-old Hempstead man, fleeing the scene and trying to cover it up by having an accomplice set fire to his car.
A Nassau County jury found Madi Grant guilty of second-degree manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, driving while ability impaired by the combined influence of alcohol and drugs, driving without a license, arson and conspiracy.
“This cowardly defendant was drunk and high when he crashed into an innocent driver… and left him to die as he fled the scene attempting to hide his crime,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said.
Prosecutors said the 35-year-old was driving home in a borrowed rental car after drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana at a strip club in Queens when he rear-ended a car driven by Sherman Richardson, an ironworker on his way to work at 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2014.
Richardson’s car veered off the road and into a tree. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Grant fled the scene, but a Good Samaritan followed him, authorities said. Grant lost the Good Samaritan by blowing red lights and stop signs in Amityville, according to investigators.
The Good Samaritan called 911 and provided a description of Grant’s car, which Grant hired someone to set on fire to destroy the evidence, prosecutors said. The car was later found near the scene of the crash.
Judge Robert McDonald will sentence Grant to up to 15 years in prison on April 14.
