The parents of four young women who died in a limo crash while celebrating a friend’s upcoming wedding in Long Island wine country were left disgusted on finding out that nobody would serve jail time in the horrific deaths.
Steven Romeo, 57, struck a plea deal with prosecutors in Suffolk County, New York on Wednesday. His driver’s license will be suspended for 90 days in the fatal 2015 crash, and he will pay a $500 fine.
Romeo is the second driver in the fatal crash to escape jail time, after charges were dropped against the limo driver, 59-year-old Carlos Pino, whom prosecutors said made an illegal U-turn that was a primary cause of the crash.
Killed in the July 2015 crash were Brittany Schulman, Lauren Baruch, Stephanie Belli and Amy Gribina, all between 23 and 24 years old. Four others, including the bride-to-be whose bachelorette party they were celebrating, were injured.
Their parents shouted down Romeo’s attorney in court at the Wednesday hearing, refusing to let him finish a statement of remorse on behalf of his client.
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Pleaded Out: Steven Romeo (center) struck a plea deal with prosecutors in the 2015 crash that killed four women in Long Island wine country. State experts said he couldn’t avoid the wreck
Crash Scene: Romeo’s truck struck the limo after limo driver Carlos Pino made an illegal U-turn, prosecutors said. Though Romeo had been drinking he tested under the legal limit
Victims: Stephanie Belli (left) and Brittany M Schulman (right) were both killed in the crash
Victims: Lauren Baruch (left) and Amy R Grabina (right) were also killed in the crash
Outraged: Parents of the dead young women struggled to compose themselves as they left court knowing that nobody would be jailed in the horrific crash
The grieving parents of the dead young women left court in an outrage, struggling to compose themselves as they walked past news cameras. With emotions running high, the parents declined to comment on the case, saying they would offer a joint statement at a later date.
Prosecutors reached the deal with Romeo after holes emerged in the DUI case they’d hoped to build against the man.
When he was tested an hour and 40 minutes after the crash, Romeo’s blood-alcohol level was 0.066, below the legal limit, although prosecutors argued it would have likely been above New York’s 0.08 limit at the time of the crash.
Ultimately, the state’s own forensic reconstruction cast doubt on the prosecution’s case.
Authorities said the limousine, after leaving a nearby winery, was attempting to make a U-turn at an intersection along Route 48 in Cutchogue, when the pickup truck broadsided the limo full of women on July 18, 2015.
‘Based upon the state police’s very thorough reenactment’ of the crash, said Assistant District Attorney John Scott Prudenti after the hearing, ‘they concluded a sober driver could not have avoided this crash,’