Prosecutor in Drago case: 'She cut her wheel ... and she hit the gas'

Ann Marie Drago “did the unthinkable” when the enraged parents of a slain teenager confronted her on a Brentwood street after seeing stolen items memorializing their daughter in her Nissan Rogue, a prosecutor said Thursday.

“She cut the wheel in the direction of Evelyn and she hit the gas,” Assistant District Attorney Maggie Bopp told jurors of the driver’s role in the death of Evelyn Rodriguez on Sept. 14, 2018.

The prosecutor also said in her opening statement during Drago’s criminally negligent homicide trial in Suffolk criminal court in Central Islip that one of Rodriguez’s feet got caught under a tire after she stepped forward at the same time Drago accelerated.

The sport utility vehicle crushed Rodriguez’s body as Drago kept driving, according to Bopp.

But the defense contends the fatal encounter was a "tragic accident." Drago's lawyer Stephen Kunken told jurors she didn’t have the criminal state of mind to commit a homicide and the law required them to focus on “what was going on inside” her mind that day on Ray Court.

It was the same block where federal prosecutors say MS-13 gang members in September 2016 killed Rodriguez’s 16-year-old daughter, Kayla Cuevas, and Kayla’s Brentwood High School classmate, Nisa Mickens, 15.

Prosecutors contend Drago's confrontation with Rodriguez and her longtime partner Freddy Cuevas —Kayla's father — was sparked after the 59-year-old Patchogue woman dismantled a memorial hours before a vigil was to be held in Kayla’s honor.

They claim she did so because she was trying to sell her mother’s house — the property on which Kayla’s body had been found — and didn’t want to scare off prospective buyers.

Highlights from Thursday's Ann Marie Drago trial:

• Attorneys gave opening statements in the criminally negligent homicide case in Suffolk criminal court.
• The prosecution contends Drago knocked Evelyn Rodriguez down and ran her over. The defense says it was a "tragic accident."
• Jurors heard a 911 call from a reporter who witnessed the fatal encounter.
• The panel is expected to see video of the crash on Friday.

“She knocked her down and ran her over,” Bopp said of Drago, whose actions, she said, left Rodriguez, 50, with injuries that included a fractured skull and broken neck. 

“Evelyn Rodriguez was killed less than 300 feet from the location of where her daughter’s body was found — two years to the day,” the prosecutor added.

After Kayla's death, Rodriguez became an outspoken critic of gang violence and met with President Donald Trump before the State of the Union address in 2018 in which he called Kayla and Nisa “precious girls” as he spoke about MS-13 violence.

Later Thursday, the prosecution played a 911 call that News 12 Long Island reporter Eileen Lehpamer made after Drago ran over Rodriguez, video of which news station personnel captured on camera and jurors will soon see.

Lehpamer frantically asked for help for Rodriguez, saying she was unconscious and bleeding from her head after a driver — she gave Drago's license plate — ran over Rodriguez. Cuevas can be heard wailing at times in the background as Rodriguez's life slipped away.

In his opening statement Thursday, Kunken said Drago had been “scared to death." Rodriguez and Cuevas threatened her and cursed at her — with Cuevas ordering Drago out of the vehicle and calling her "an (expletive) animal," according to the Commack attorney.

“She has two choices to try to protect herself from this onslaught and from what she perceived as a very real threat of physical injury: fight or flight,” Kunken added of his client.

The defense attorney also said Drago, a registered nurse, had long suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder and major depressive disorder linked to a psychiatric patient’s 2008 attack on her.

Kunken said Drago didn’t see Rodriguez in front of the Nissan because the woman had moved slightly to the left. 

He said Drago eased her Nissan forward, turning the steering wheel slightly left to angle around Rodriguez's parked minivan, as she tried to get away from Cuevas who had moved to the back of the Nissan.

Drago, he said, believed Cuevas was trying to get inside her vehicle.

“She starts to move the car forward to get away from this threat and this tragic accident takes place,” Kunken said.

Drago faces 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison if jurors find her guilty of the top count against her. She also faces misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and petit larceny related to the memorial.

For a jury to convict Drago of the top count, the 12 panelists must find she caused Rodriguez’s death and did so with criminal negligence. 

Hours before her death, Rodriguez had prepared for what was planned as a 6 p.m. vigil by setting up balloons, candles, a large photo of Kayla in her Junior ROTC uniform and a flower wreath in front of Drago's mother's home, according to prosecutors.

Bopp told jurors Kayla’s parents came to the scene shortly after 4 p.m. after Lehpamer, part of a News 12 team there to cover the vigil, called Rodriguez when she realized the memorial had been removed.

Bopp called the News 12 video “graphic” and “gruesome," adding that it showed anger and raw emotion from Rodriguez and Cuevas after they caught Drago “red-handed” with the stolen memorial items and "wanted their stuff back."

But the parents didn't have any weapons and weren't making any physical threats, Bopp also said.

Meanwhile, Drago was in her Nissan with her cellphone, her fiance in the passenger seat, and her windows up and doors locked.

“You don’t run someone over with your car because they confronted you," Bopp said.