Man convicted in crash that hurt woman, 80

A Massapequa Park man was convicted Wednesday of vehicular assault and driving while high on prescription drugs after he crashed into two cars outside the Sunrise Mall, severely injuring an 80-year-old woman, prosecutors said.

Joseph Jacob, 35, who was acquitted of the top charge against him, first-degree depraved indifference assault, faces up to 4 years in prison when Nassau County Judge Norman St. George sentences him Oct. 21.

Prosecutors said Jacob left a suicide note at his home on Sept. 23, 2008, saying that he had taken 60 Xanax pills and then drove off.

He was speeding on Carmans Road when he crossed the center median and three lanes of westbound traffic on Sunrise Highway and crashed into two cars in the eastbound lanes that were turning left into Sunrise Mall, prosecutors said.

The driver of one vehicle, an 80-year-old woman, suffered several fractured ribs, a ruptured spleen and diminished mental capacity as a result of the crash. The driver and passenger in the other vehicle were not injured.

Jacob's lawyer, Dana Grossblatt, of Jericho, said prosecutors did not prove who wrote the suicide note or when it was written. She said evidence showed that the crash was not a suicide attempt, but an accident.