BRONX MAN SENTENCED FOR 2018 CAR CRASH THAT KILLED PEDESTRIAN, WOUNDED WOMAN

 

Defendant Was Convicted of Manslaughter and Assault 

 Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been sentenced to three to nine years in prison after he was convicted of second-degree Manslaughter and third-degree Assault in a 2018 car crash on the Grand Concourse that killed an elderly woman and left another woman injured. 

 District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant was driving at least 62 miles an hour in a 25 mile-per-hour zone and struck multiple cars. He rear-ended one of the vehicles and propelled it into a 74-year-old woman who was crossing the street. The driver was injured, and the pedestrian died of her injuries two years later. Reckless drivers will be held accountable for their actions. I hope this sentence gives the victims and their families a measure of healing from this trauma.” 

 District Attorney Clark said the defendant, David Fennell, 49, of 767 East 218th Street, was sentenced today to three to nine years in prison for the second-degree Manslaughter charge and one year for the third-degree Assault charge by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett. The defendant was found guilty of the charges after a bench trial on July 16, 2021.

 According to the investigation, on May 18, 2018 at approximately 11:00 a.m., the defendant was driving a 2009 Mercedes-Benz ML350 at a high rate of speed on 175th Street and Grand Concourse. Fennell sideswiped a car, crashed onto the curb and slammed into wooden fencing. He then side-swiped a second vehicle and rear-ended a 2006 Chevy Malibu, pushing it into the crosswalk where Barbara Hendricks, 74, was crossing the street. The driver in the Malibu, Daisy Bonilla, 51, sustained lacerations and bruises and was taken to a local hospital for a brain bleed, neck and back pain. Hendricks was hospitalized after sustaining a traumatic brain injury, brain bleed, broken pelvis, and multiple broken bones. She was intubated in the Intensive Care Unit and was treated in long-term treatment facilities where she died of her injuries on March 25, 2020.

 The defendant was arrested in May 2018 and was arrested again after charges were upgraded to Manslaughter on July 28, 2020.

 District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detective Peter Jarvis of the Collision Investigation Squad and NYPD Officer Gregory Gianacopulos of the Collision Investigation Squad for their assistance in the investigation.