Wheatley Heights man sentenced to prison in crash that killed his friend

A Wheatley Heights man who declined to tell police at a crash scene that he was driving the car in which his friend died was sentenced to 3 to 9 years in prison Tuesday after the judge chastised him for trying to evade responsibility.

Brandon Charles, 20, pleaded guilty in September to second-degree manslaughter for causing the death of Carla Vanessa Flores, 19, of Wyandanch. He admitted driving at high speed in the early hours of Nov. 1, 2014, when the car flipped in Melville.

At the scene, neither he nor the car's owner, Joseph Dunn, 21, of Dix Hills, would say who was driving, so police had no authority to test either of them for alcohol or drugs. But the Suffolk Crime Laboratory tested a spot of blood on the driver's doorjamb and matched it to Charles, showing he was the driver.

In the Central Islip courtroom, Flores' sister told Charles he had destroyed several lives.

"It is so very hard to accept it," said her older sister, Viviana Betanco of Wyandanch. "Her life was cut short because of your stupid, selfish acts."

Charles agreed.

"The damage I've done is completely unforgivable. I am so terribly sorry," he said. "I hope and pray that in time I can be forgiven."

"I hope that's sincere," said state Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho, who then expressed his displeasure that until that moment, Charles had not taken responsibility for his actions and used the ambiguity he caused about who was driving to negotiate a more favorable sentence.

The maximum for manslaughter is 5 to 15 years in prison, but if police could have proved he was drunk when he crashed he could have been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, which has a top sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.

Charles' attorney, Peter Brill of Hauppauge, said his client has always been remorseful, at least in private. "From the beginning, he's felt horrible," Brill said.

Camacho, who presides over the bulk of vehicular felony cases in Suffolk, said the sheer volume of drunken-driving cases is distressing.

"I cannot get used to family members coming in here to express their pain," he said.

Both prosecutors and Flores' family said they hoped the timing of this sentencing would remind people to be careful over the Thanksgiving break.

"If one person cannot drink and drive this weekend because of this, it would be good," Betanco said.

John Scott Prudenti, chief of the vehicular crimes unit for the Suffolk district attorney's office, said this weekend is often troublesome because college students are home and seeing friends and sometimes making poor decisions.

"It's worse than New Year's Eve," he said. "Don't drink and drive, with anyone. Call your parents. Call your friends. Call a cab."