Southern State Parkway crash: Diana Kutateladze told police she drank whiskey before collision that killed Westbury couple

An Oceanside woman told police she drank a whiskey and Coke Sunday night before she caused a multivehicle crash on the Southern State Parkway and ended up going west in the eastbound lanes, killing a Westbury couple in a head-on collision.

Diana Kutateladze, 36, appeared in a Hempstead courtroom Tuesday in a hospital gown and in a wheelchair, and was arraigned on 10 counts, including eight felonies, to which she pleaded not guilty. 

She is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular manslaughter in connection with the deaths of Donald Maxwell, 82, and his wife, Liscent Barbara Maxwell, 88, who were passengers in a 2016 Toyota Highlander. 

State police said the crash involved six vehicles on the parkway and 10 people, including the Maxwells, Kutateladze and her husband, who was critically injured.

"Aside from the fatal head-on collision, this defendant's reckless driving caused even further collisions and destruction on the Southern State Parkway," Nassau Assistant District Attorney James Taglienti said.

Kutateladze told police she drank a whiskey and Coke with her husband before driving. During a preliminary breath test, she recorded a 0.10%, exceeding the legal limit of 0.08% for alcohol in the bloodstream while driving, prosecutors said.

In court, Kutateladze was ordered remanded without bail. She had been hospitalized Monday at Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside. A large group of the Maxwell family sat in the back of the courtroom but did not speak to reporters after the arraignment.

Prosecutors said Kutateladze was driving a 2020 Cadillac Escalade, going 70 mph in the westbound lanes of the parkway when she sideswiped another vehicle west of Exit 17S, near Malverne.

Her car then spun out and launched over a metal guardrail into the eastbound lanes, where she crashed head-on into the Highlander, killing the Maxwells and breaking the arm and pelvis of their driver.

The crash left Kutateladze's husband, who was riding in the front seat, intubated in the hospital with a brain bleed, a cervical spinal fracture, broken ribs and two fractured femurs, prosecutors said.

When police arrived, Kutateladze had glassy eyes and had the smell of alcohol on her breath, officers said.

"There are witnesses to the defendant's intoxication, and she admitted to it," Taglienti said. "Also, due to the nature of the crash itself, it shows how reckless her driving was to end up on the wrong side of the parkway and crash head on into another vehicle."

Prosecutors asked Kutateladze to surrender her passport, noting she was born in Russia.

A court-appointed Legal Aid defense attorney said Kutateladze has been a U.S. citizen for several decades and has lived in Oceanside for six years and is the mother of four, including 6-year-old twin boys, a 4-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old.

Her attorney said she received her Juris Doctor degree in law last year from Cardozo Law School. She has worked as a paralegal for about 16 years, including doing pro bono work for the past several years at an immigration clinic, her attorney said.

Her attorney said Kutateladze has no criminal record and had close ties to the community, taking her children to school and a Jewish community center daily.

If convicted, Kutateladze could face between 8 and 25 years in prison.

The Maxwells lived in Westbury and were leaders in the Pentecostal City Mission Church in Far Rockaway. Liscent Maxwell previously served as a chaplain for Episcopal Health Services in Far Rockaway.

" A chaplain's chaplain, she was compassionate, caring and exceptional. Her gentle presence brought comfort to many, and her legacy of faithful service endures," Episcopal Health Pastor Asnel Valcin said in a statement.

Newsday's Tiffany Cusaac-Smith contributed to this report