NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Bronx man was sentenced to up to 22 years in prison for recklessly driving a stolen box truck in Queens and Brooklyn and fatally crashing it into a vehicle, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Wednesday.
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The Albany Crescent man, 39-year-old Ramon Pena, stole a box truck from 101st Avenue in Jamaica on June 30, 2020 around 12:00 p.m., court documents show.
Pena started driving the truck through several neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn. An eyewitness reported seeing Pena speed through red lights and drive on the wrong side of the street, officials said. He hit about 20 parked and moving cars along the way.
Around 1 p.m., Pena ran through a red light at the intersection of Rentar Plaza and Metropolitan Avenue, slamming into the driver’s side of a black Honda CR-V driven by 25-year-old Hamlet Cruz-Gomez.
After hitting Cruz-Gomez, Pena jumped out of the box truck and ran into a nearby subway station where he was arrested.
Cruz-Gomez was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead from injuries he sustained during the collision.
“The defendant left a trail of destruction that culminated in a deadly collision when a young man was tragically killed as the result of the defendant’s reckless driving,” Katz said. “Every individual who gets behind the wheel of a vehicle bears the moral and legal responsibility to do so safely. The senseless mayhem that the defendant caused is unacceptable. He has now been held accountable for his actions and will serve tim in prison as imposed by the Court.”
Pena pleaded guilty to second degree manslaughter and leaving the scene of an incident on Sept. 13. He was sentenced Wednesday to seven and one-third to 22 years in prison.
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