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Cops: Man killed trying to stop drunk-driving girlfriend in Centereach

BY CHRISTINE ARMARIO | christine.armario@newsday.com

12:11 AM EDT, July 23, 2007

Drunk but intent on driving, Jesenia Vega fought off her boyfriend as she left a Centereach block party and got into her car, Suffolk police said.

"You're going to get arrested," Louis Wiederer, 26, of Westbury, warned his girlfriend, a witness heard them arguing late Saturday. "You can't drive like that!"

"Leave me alone!" she said.

With that, Vega, 27, of Carle Place, put her key in the ignition and drove off -- as Wiederer hung onto an open window. She continued north, dragging him on the pavement, then underneath her car, before coming to a stop three blocks later, police and witnesses said.

Jay Steiner, 60, a retired nurse, who lives near the scene, rushed to the man's aid.

"Oh, my God," Steiner recalled Vega telling him. "Don't tell me I just killed my fiance."

Wiederer was pronounced dead at the scene. Vega was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. She was arraigned yesterday at First District Court in Central Islip, where she was remanded to the county jail without bail.

As friends and relatives comforted Wiederer's family yesterday afternoon, his mother struggled for words to describe the sudden death of her eldest son.

"It's just a loss right now that's indescribable," Barbara Dempsey said through tears.

Dempsey recalled telling her son goodbye Saturday afternoon as he left for what was supposed to be a jovial evening at a friend's summer barbecue.

"Have a good time," Dempsey told him. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he replied.

Wiederer and his girlfriend arrived at the annual Flower Lane block party, where families set up food in their yards and invite over friends and neighbors. At about 9 p.m., Vega left and headed toward her car at the corner of Garden Lane and Tree Road, and the arguing began, neighbors said.

"It looked like he was hitting her, but he was trying to stop her," neighbor Nick Montanino, 49, recalled yesterday.

"She was totally irrational," Montanino said of Vega.

Vega slipped in the vehicle and drove off, as Wiederer grabbed onto the open driver's side window. She fishtailed down the block, with her boyfriend's feet dragging underneath the car until his shoes came off, Steiner said. Somewhere along the way, Wiederer became lodged underneath the vehicle, leaving a trail of skid marks and blood.

Steiner watched in horror as the car sped past two stop signs, he said, and then came to an abrupt stop at the intersection of Tree Road and Vine Court.

"The whole back of the car was enveloped in white smoke," Steiner said. He rushed to the car and crawled beneath it, where he found Wiederer's badly injured body, he said.

There were no signs of life.

Steiner asked Vega if she was hurt. She said no and asked about her fiance, he said.