Basketball player in fatal crash pleads not guilty

A Valley Stream man who prosecutors said caused a deadly Hempstead wreck after chasing a car with his ex-girlfriend in it told police later he was "a good kid" who "messed up," court records show.

Dana King Jr., 23, who played basketball for Nassau Community College, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Mineola courtroom to an indictment charging him with manslaughter and two felony assault counts.

Police arrested King following the death of driver Jim Hayes Jr., 22, of Hempstead, in the March 19 crash.

Authorities said the wreck took place just after midnight on Baldwin Road and also left King's ex-girlfriend, Isabel Rodriguez, 21, of Valley Stream, with a broken back and broken arm. She was in Hayes' car.

After the arraignment, King's defense attorney Michael DerGarabedian  said his client was "remorseful" and called the crash a "tragic accident." 

DerGarabedian has previously said King was due to graduate from NCC this month. He said Tuesday that King is “temporarily out of school right now.”

The school's basketball roster showed King played for the team from 2016 to 2018. School officials didn't immediately respond to a question about his enrollment or athletic status.

King allegedly gave differing accounts of the crash and the events leading up to it when he spoke to police, court records show.

Authorities have said the “super reckless” high-speed five-mile chase started in Valley Stream and ended when King, driving a 2009 Audi, rear-ended Hayes’ 2007 BMW.

The impact sent the BMW careening into a fire hydrant and a tree before Hayes died at the scene, according to police.

Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement that King "allegedly could not accept that his relationship with his ex-girlfriend was over" and Hayes lost his life "as a result."

Records show King told police at first that Rodriguez was his girlfriend and he’d been waiting outside her home because the two of them and Hayes were going to go smoke marijuana.

King also said he followed the pair in his Audi after Rodriguez came out of her home and got into Hayes's BMW, the records show.

According to the records, King told police the cars drove onto the Southern State Parkway before getting off at Baldwin Road and were going pretty fast when he looked down to lower the volume of his radio.

But the BMW had slowed by the time he looked up, King allegedly said, adding that he hit the brakes but couldn't avoid crashing into the car’s back end.

At the crash scene he said: "I'm not stupid. I'm supposed to graduate from Nassau in May. All I do is play ball," according to the records.

But later at police headquarters, the records show, King said he’d parked down the block from Rodriguez’s home before chasing Hayes’ BMW after the Hempstead man picked up Rodriguez.

King also allegedly described confrontations with the other vehicle, saying he yelled “that’s my girl” at the BMW and that Hayes hit the Audi with a wrench.

King said he lightly struck the back of the BMW on the parkway, and described a dispute on the road shoulder, the records show.

Hayes threatened to kill him before King grabbed Rodriguez and told her “come with me,” the Valley Stream man also reportedly told police.

King also said, according to the records, that he went into his trunk to pretend he was getting a weapon and the BMW got a head start, leaving the area before he caught up to it and the crash occurred.

The records state that King said he loved Rodriguez and the crash wasn’t his fault, while also admitting he smoked marijuana at 10:30 p.m.

Later, at a hospital, King also allegedly told police: “I should have never went there. I messed up. I’m a good kid.”

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert Bogle kept King’s bond at $500,000 and he remains free awaiting trial.

The judge also signed an order telling King to stay away from Rodriguez.

The victim’s sister, Treasure Hayes, cried later outside Nassau County Court as she held her brother's infant daughter.

“It hurts,” the 21-year-old said, choked up from tears. “ … I don’t understand how somebody could do this to him.”

Standing beside her with the victim's 2-year-old daughter was Jada Sherrill, the mother of both children.

Sherrill said the toddler didn’t understand why her father wasn’t coming home, and her infant daughter “doesn’t even know” Hayes and “never will.”