Valley Stream man sentenced to 3 and 1/2 years in prison for drunken driving Father’s Day crash that killed his half-brother
A Valley Stream man who killed his half brother in a single-car drunken driving crash on Father’s Day 2022 will serve at least 3 ½ years behind bars, a Nassau County judge ruled on Thursday.
Joshua Peña, 25, who was born to a different mother a day apart from Xavier Peña, 23, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree manslaughter, second-degree vehicular manslaughter, assault, drunken driving and other charges after he used the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway as “his own personal raceway” on June 19 at 7:45 p.m. according to Nassau County prosecutor Tara DePalo.
He “drove straight off the end” of the expressway near exit 1 in Seaford, the prosecutor said, going 127 mph while behind the wheel of his white 2018 Mercedes with a blood-alcohol content more than twice the legal limit to drive.
Xavier Peña became pinned in the car, which rested on the guardrail after it stopped against a tree on the side of the road.
His brother climbed out, virtually unscathed. Xavier lived for another half hour with his injuries before dying, his mother Melissa Diaz said at the Thursday sentencing.
In life, the brothers were inseparable, their father Pedro Peña said, but in the courtroom, the feelings between the two families were divided.
“My family is broken, my heart is broken and the worst part is that this did not have to happen,” Diaz said, tearfully, before the sentencing. “Xavier should still be here. Joshua may go to jail, but he will return home. My son will never go home. This was not an accident, this was a decision that cost my son’s life.”
Daiz blamed Joshua Peña for not doing more to help her son.
“My son was left bleeding alone like he didn’t matter, but he does matter; he was my son,” she said. “My heart and my soul, he deserved to be helped and saved and fought for.”
Xavier’s aunt Lissett Severino said that she can no longer do her job driving for Uber because her thoughts always turn to her nephew trapped in the mangled car.
“There are so many nights that I just have to go home because I cannot drive and cry with passengers on the road,” she said.
Severino, too, blamed Joshua for the death of Xavier.
“The unremorseful attitude that Joshua has displayed to us has been unfathomable,” she said. “Absolutely no remorse whatsoever. It’s unfair that Joshua got to walk out of the hospital the very next day after killing Xavier.”
Joshua Peña, dressed in a gray suit, looked back expressionless at the other family crying as they spoke.
The men’s father Pedro Peña described his late son as a vibrant, outgoing person who had big plans for the future and he wants his surviving son to look to the future as well.
“I always tell him what you do moving forward is what’s going to make a difference; moving forward is what Xavier would have wanted,” he said.
He urged leniency from the judge.
“I lost a son, and I’m losing another son to a system with so many flaws — a system that does not correct anything,” he said.
Finally, Joshua Peña spoke, addressing the mother and the aunt to apologize for his recklessness.
“I wish I could take their pain and hold it, but I can’t,” he said. “I can’t even hold my pain … You guys do not deserve this. I’m sorry, but you deserve to be at peace.”
Joshua told them that he’s been tortured by the death of his brother.
“When you lose someone, you don’t just lose them once; you lose them every day,” he said. “The guilt eats at me, but I have gotten better over the past couple of years.”
He too asked the judge for a short sentence so that he could move forward with his life.
Supreme Court Justice Teresa Corrigan said that she tried to strike a balance between the two families, one that wanted a long sentence for the death of their son and the other that wanted to move past the tragedy.
“I believe that sentence that I will give today is just and I know that it will satisfy no one,” she said.
A Valley Stream man who killed his half brother in a single-car drunken driving crash on Father’s Day 2022 will serve at least 3 ½ years behind bars, a Nassau County judge ruled on Thursday.
Joshua Peña, 25, who was born to a different mother a day apart from Xavier Peña, 23, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree manslaughter, second-degree vehicular manslaughter, assault, drunken driving and other charges after he used the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway as “his own personal raceway” on June 19 at 7:45 p.m. according to Nassau County prosecutor Tara DePalo.
He “drove straight off the end” of the expressway near exit 1 in Seaford, the prosecutor said, going 127 mph while behind the wheel of his white 2018 Mercedes with a blood-alcohol content more than twice the legal limit to drive.
Xavier Peña became pinned in the car, which rested on the guardrail after it stopped against a tree on the side of the road.
His brother climbed out, virtually unscathed. Xavier lived for another half hour with his injuries before dying, his mother Melissa Diaz said at the Thursday sentencing.
In life, the brothers were inseparable, their father Pedro Peña said, but in the courtroom, the feelings between the two families were divided.
“My family is broken, my heart is broken and the worst part is that this did not have to happen,” Diaz said, tearfully, before the sentencing. “Xavier should still be here. Joshua may go to jail, but he will return home. My son will never go home. This was not an accident, this was a decision that cost my son’s life.”
Daiz blamed Joshua Peña for not doing more to help her son.
“My son was left bleeding alone like he didn’t matter, but he does matter; he was my son,” she said. “My heart and my soul, he deserved to be helped and saved and fought for.”
Xavier’s aunt Lissett Severino said that she can no longer do her job driving for Uber because her thoughts always turn to her nephew trapped in the mangled car.
“There are so many nights that I just have to go home because I cannot drive and cry with passengers on the road,” she said.
Severino, too, blamed Joshua for the death of Xavier.
“The unremorseful attitude that Joshua has displayed to us has been unfathomable,” she said. “Absolutely no remorse whatsoever. It’s unfair that Joshua got to walk out of the hospital the very next day after killing Xavier.”
Joshua Peña, dressed in a gray suit, looked back expressionless at the other family crying as they spoke.
The men’s father Pedro Peña described his late son as a vibrant, outgoing person who had big plans for the future and he wants his surviving son to look to the future as well.
“I always tell him what you do moving forward is what’s going to make a difference; moving forward is what Xavier would have wanted,” he said.
He urged leniency from the judge.
“I lost a son, and I’m losing another son to a system with so many flaws — a system that does not correct anything,” he said.
Finally, Joshua Peña spoke, addressing the mother and the aunt to apologize for his recklessness.
“I wish I could take their pain and hold it, but I can’t,” he said. “I can’t even hold my pain … You guys do not deserve this. I’m sorry, but you deserve to be at peace.”
Joshua told them that he’s been tortured by the death of his brother.
“When you lose someone, you don’t just lose them once; you lose them every day,” he said. “The guilt eats at me, but I have gotten better over the past couple of years.”
He too asked the judge for a short sentence so that he could move forward with his life.
Supreme Court Justice Teresa Corrigan said that she tried to strike a balance between the two families, one that wanted a long sentence for the death of their son and the other that wanted to move past the tragedy.
“I believe that sentence that I will give today is just and I know that it will satisfy no one,” she said.
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