Drunken driver begs forgiveness from dead teen's family

The Mattituck nurse who prosecutors said was driving drunk when she struck and killed a 15-year-old boy in Hampton Bays last summer sobbed and begged forgiveness from the teen's family before she was sentenced Thursday to 6 months in jail and 5 years' probation.

"I hope you will be able to forgive me one day," a tearful Caroline Goss said to the family of Joseph Marino in a Riverhead courtroom.

Goss, 35, was drunk when her sport utility vehicle struck the Hampton Bays teenager as he rode his bike on Ponquogue Avenue in August, prosecutors said. Her own 6-year-old son was in her car at the time, police said.

Goss's blood-alcohol content was .13 percent, when the legal limit is .08 percent, according to the office of Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

She originally was charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and endangering the welfare of a child. The charges were upgraded in county court to include second-degree vehicular manslaughter.

Through a plea agreement, Goss pleaded guilty to the top count of vehicular manslaughter, as well as the charges of DWI and endangering the welfare of a child. The maximum sentence normally would be 2 to 7 years in prison if she were convicted of vehicular manslaughter.

Before Goss spoke, Joseph's mother, Dorothy Marino, talked of "the hell we have been living" since her younger son died.

"What if the tables were turned?" she said, as Goss sobbed in County Court Judge Gary Weber's courtroom. "Would you honestly feel that six months is a suitable sentence?"

Family friend Sherry Wandoloski read to the court a statement from her daughter McKenzie, who was Joseph's friend and schoolmate. "He was such a fun, loving, crazy person," Wandoloski read aloud. "If I could do anything to get him back, I would. I love you, Joe."

Older brother Anthony Marino, 19, spoke of a "trivial fight" being the last interaction he remembered having with Joseph.

"I will never be able to say 'I'm sorry,' " Anthony Marino said through tears.

The Marino family has criticized the 6-month jail sentence as too lenient. They and their supporters were outside the courthouse in Riverhead all week, protesting the plea agreement.

The DA's office said the case would have been difficult to take to trial because evidence showed the teen swerved into traffic and there was no evidence that Goss was speeding, weaving or driving on the shoulder.

Prosecutors also believed statements from teenagers who witnessed the crash, along with an accident reconstruction, would make it extremely difficult to obtain a conviction.

Weber, in a memo issued about the plea agreement, said he agreed with the DA's assessment of the case.

"This is a terrible tragedy," Goss' stepmother, Nancy Goss, said as she left the court.

Afterward, Dorothy Marino broke down as she spoke to reporters. "The laws have to change. We have to make DWI a violent crime," she said, before turning, tears streaming down her cheeks, and burying her face in her husband Phil's chest.

With Carl MacGowan