Queens DA: Drunken driver sentenced in crash that killed Copiague mom, daughter
A Queens man was sentenced Thursday to up to 15 years in prison for causing a July 2021 crash in Queens that killed Diana Granobles, 31, of Copiague, and her daughter, Isabella, 10. Credit: Betty Granobles
A drunken driver has been sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison for causing the 2021 crash in Queens that killed a mom and her 10-year-old daughter, both from Copiague, according to the borough district attorney’s office.
The driver, Tyrone Absolam, 42, of Jamaica, Queens, had pleaded guilty last month to aggravated vehicular homicide in connection with the July 24, 2021, crash, in which he sped with nearly twice the legal alcohol limit in his body and struck a car carrying Diana Granobles, 31, and her daughter Isabella.
Also injured in the crash were Absolam’s passengers — a 12-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl, and a 38-year-old woman — and Absolam himself. Updates on their long-term injuries, if any, weren’t available Friday.
Absolam’s attorney, Keith Arnold Jr., did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday morning.
The crash happened just before 8:45 p.m. at Rockaway and Guy R. Brewer boulevards near Kennedy Airport: Absolam, driving west in a 2018 Nissan Altima on Rockaway Boulevard, collided with a 2020 Chevrolet Cruze being driven by Granobles, according to an NYPD news release sent after of the crash. Granobles was driving in the opposite direction, making a left turn onto northbound Guy R. Brewer Boulevard.
"I drank from my girlfriend’s cup of vodka and iced tea at around 5:00 p.m. while we were at the beach," he said in substance, according to a news release back then from the district attorney’s office, which added that he said he was going 50 mph. The posted limit there is 35 mph.
Lorenzano Granobles — Diana’s husband and Isabella’s dad — worked two blocks away from the crash scene for a freight forwarding company, according to Betty Granobles, whose husband is Lorenzano’s cousin.
"She was just with her daughter picking up the dad from work when everything happened," Betty Granobles said back then.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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